HISTORY   OF   ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


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Courtesy  of  the  Century  Co.  Painting  by  De  Ivanowskl 

Scene  from  "  A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream." 


HISTORY 

OF 

ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


BY 


A.   S.  MACKENZIE,  M.A.,  LiTT.D. 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  EVOLUTION  OF  LITERATURE,"  ETC. 

PROFESSOR  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE,  STATE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  KENTUCKY 


Neto  gork 

THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
1915 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1914, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  September,  1914.     Reprinted 
January,  1915. 


NortoooO  ipress 

J.  S.  Cashing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


Be&tcatefc 

TO 

THE  FAITHFUL  TEACHERS 
OF  LITERATURE 


331045 


PREFACE 

THE  sole  aim  of  this  book  is  to  be  of  service  to  teachers 
and  their  classes.  It  has  been  written  because  so  many 
instructors  expressed  a  desire  for  a  new  guide  to  the  lit- 
erary masters.  For  years  it  has  been  the  privilege  of  the 
author  to  examine  students  from  colleges  and  secondary 
schools  as  well  as  to  teach  high  school  and  university 
classes.  He  has  lectured  on  English  literature  before 
Teachers'  Institutes  and  Associations  in  twelve  states  of 
the  Union,  and  has  thus  had  opportunities  of  learning  the 
needs  of  alert  and  capable  teachers.  He  also  possesses  a 
first-hand  knowledge  of  some  of  the  authors  and  of  all 
the  places  of  literary  interest  in  the  British  Isles. 

This  study  of  the  great  writers  is  concise  enough  to 
give  readers  ample  time  to  fall  in  love  with  the  treasures 
of  English  literature.  It  is  better  to  read  and  enjoy  one 
play  or  one  poem  than  to  read  many  books  about  the 
play  or  the  poem.  A  taste  for  good  books  exalts  the 
meaning  of  everyday  events,  and  it  gives  courage  in  life's 
battle.  Certainly  literature  is  most  practical. 

Among  the  new  features  of  this  manual  are  its  inclusion 
of  a  brief  chapter  on  the  earliest  literature  of  Britain  and 
one  on  the  popular  ballad,  and  its  exclusion  of  everything 
that  might  confuse  or  mislead  youthful  readers.  Some  of 
the  maps  and  illustrations  have  never  before  appeared. 
There  are  numerous  books  about  the  authors  and  works 
of  each  period,  but  mention  is  made  only  of  those  that  are 

vii 


Vlll  PREFACE 

deemed  essential  for  the  main  purpose  of  this  volume.  So 
far  as  Suggested  Readings  are  concerned,  it  seems  wiser 
to  leave  details  to  the  individuality  of  the  reader.  Neither 
teachers  nor  their  classes  should  be  obliged  to  follow  any 
text-book  slavishly.  They  should  have  scope  to  show 
their  own  originality  and  power  of  research,  without  which 
the  best  results  cannot  be  obtained. 

I  am  under  obligation  to  my  colleague  Professor  L.  E. 
Nollau  and  to  Mr.  J.  M.  Turner  of  Lexington  for  excellent 
photographs,  to  Mr.  Wayne  Davies  for  literary  maps,  and 
to  Mr.  H.  Felix  for  pen-and-ink  sketches.  I  also  thank 
the  many  teachers  throughout  the  country  who  have  read 
and  approved  the  manuscript.  The  portrait  of  Milton  at 
the  age  of  twenty-one  is  reproduced  from  Milton  Memorial 
Lectures  through  the  courtesy  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Literature. 

A.  S.  M. 

LEXINGTON,  KENTUCKY. 


LITERARY  MAP 

OP 

ENGLAND 
AND  WALES 


LITERARY  MAP 

OF 
IRELAND 

Scale  of  Miles 


Blarney  Castle  o    Middle 


West0          8 


Greenwich 


LIST   OF   IRISH   AUTHORS 

Allingham,  William,  Ballyshannon,  Co.  Donegal. 

Banim,  Michael,  Kilkenny. 

Barlow,  Jane,  Clontarf,  Co.  Dublin. 

Boyle,  Robert,  Lismore. 

Boyle,  William,  Dromiskin,  Co.  Louth. 

Bryce,  James,  Belfast. 

Burke,  Edmund,  Dublin. 

Carberry,  Ethna,  Ballymena,  Antrim. 

Carleton,  William,  Prillisk,  Clogher,  Co.  Tyrone. 

Farquhar,  George,  Londonderry. 

Goldsmith,  Oliver,  Pallas,  Longford. 

Gregory,  Lady  Augusta,  Roxborough,  Galway. 

Jameson,  Anna,  Dublin. 

Joyce,  Patrick  Weston,  Ballyorgan,  Limerick. 

Lecky,  William  Edward  Hartpole,  Newton  Park,  near  Dublin. 

Lever,  Charles,  Dublin. 

Lover,  Samuel,  Dublin. 

MacManus,  Seumas,  Mountcharles,  Donegal. 

McCarthy,  Justin,  Cork. 

Mangan,  James  Clarence,  Dublin. 

Martyn,  Edward,  Masonbrook,  Galway. 

Moore,  Frankfort,  Limerick. 

Moore,  George,  Ballyglass,  Co.  Mayo. 

Moore,  Thomas,  Dublin. 

Mulholland,  Rosa,  (Lady  Gilbert),  Belfast. 

Russell,  George  W.,  (A.  E.),  Lurgan,  Co.  Armagh. 

Shaw,  George  Bernard,  Dublin. 

Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley,  Dublin. 

Steele,  Richard,  Dublin. 

Sterne,  Laurence,  Dublin. 

Synge,  John  Millington,  Newton  Little,  near  Dublin. 

Trench,  Frederic  Herbert,  Avonmore,  Middleton,  Co.  Cork. 

Tynan,  Katherine  Hinkson,  St.  Valerie,  near  Bray,  Co.  Wicklow. 

Tyndale,  John,  Leighlin  Bridge,  Co.  Carlow. 

Wilde,  Oscar,  Dublin. 

Yeats,  William  Butler,  Dublin. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

EARLIEST  LITERARY  PERIOD 
Prior  to  449  A.D. 

PAGE 

Earliest  natives  of  Britain  —  Keltic  conquest  —  Visits  of  Julius 
Caesar  —  Oral  literature  of  the  Britons  —  Roman  conquest  — 
Earliest  British  writings 1 

CHAPTER   II 
THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD 

449-1066 

Anglo-Saxon  invasion  of  Britain  —  Magic  verses — Traditional  poetry 
such  as  Widsith  and  Beowulf —  Historical  po  ry  like  the  Battle 
ofBrunanburh —  Casdmon's  hymn,  Cynewuu  s  Christ,  and  other 
religious  poems  —  Latin  prose  of  Gildas  —  Bede's  Church  His- 
tory—  Saxon  Chronicles  —  King  Alfred's  prose  translations  — 
^Elfric  and  Wulfstan 9 

CHAPTER   III 
THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD 

1066-1300 

Normans  in  England  — Crusades  —  Apollonius  of  Tyre  —  Romances 
of  chivalry  —  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  —  Development  of  the  ro- 
mance of  Arthur  —  Layamon's  Brut  —  A  Norman-English  school 
—  Ancren  Eiwle  —  The  debate  —  Songs  of  love  and  religion  — 

Rime 35 

xiii 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   IV 

THE  CHAUCER  PERIOD 

1300-1400 

PAGE 

Piers  Plowman — Allegories  in  verse  —  Pearl  —  Barbour's  Bruce 

—  Wyclif's  translation  —  Mandeville's   Voyage  and    Travel  — 
Chaucer's  experiments  and  principal  works — The  Canterbury 
Tales  —  Chaucer's  language 52 

CHAPTER   V 
POPULAR  BALLADS 

Current  popular  songs  —  Origin  and  kinds  of  ballads  —  Sir  Patrick 
Spens  —  Hebridean  ballads  —  English  ballads  in  America  — 
Broadsides  —  Chap  books  —  Ballads  and  other  poetry  .  .  75 

CHAPTER   VI 
THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD 

1400-1564 

Revival  of  learning  —  Humanism  —  The  Renaissance  —  Invention  of 
printing — The  Kingis  Quair —  Malory's  Morte  &  Arthur — 
Caxton's  press  —  Pastoral  poetry  —  Henry  son,  Dunbar,  and 
Douglas  —  More's  Utopia  —  Wyatt  and  Surrey  ...  87 

CHAPTER   VII 
THE  EARLY  DRAMATIC  PERIOD 

Kinds  of  drama  —  Children's  games  —  Church  drama  —  Trade  guilds 

—  Pageants  —  Miracle  plays,  mysteries,  and  moral  plays  —  In- 
terludes—  Lyndsay  and  Heywood  —  The  Devil  and  the  Vice 

—  Masques  —  Ralph  Roister  Doister  —  Grorboduc     .        .        .     106 

CHAPTER   VIII 
THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD 

1564-1616 
Ascham  anc^  Lyly  —  Sidney's  Arcadia  —  Spenser's  Faerie  Queene 

—  Bacon's  Essays  —  The  first  English  theatre — Plays  of  Lyly, 


CONTENTS  XV 

PAGE 

Kyd,  Peele,  and  Greene  —  Marlowe's  tragedies  —  Shakespeare 
—  Order  of  his  plays  —  Collaborated  plays  —  Realism  and 
Idealism 120 

CHAPTER  IX 
THE  MILTONIC  PERIOD 

1616-1660 

Puritans  and  Cavaliers  —  Authorized  version  of  the  Bible  —  Boys  as 
actors  —  Ben  Jonson  and  other  dramatists  —  Prose  writers  such 
as  Burton  and  Izaak  Walton  —  Bunyan's  Pilgrim? s  Progress — 
Donne  and  the  Cavalier  poets  —  Milton's  L1  Allegro  and  other 
poems  ...........  163 

CHAPTER   X 
THE  RESTORATION  PERIOD 

1660-1700 

Science  and  Prose  —  Locke,  Pepys,  and  George  Mackenzie  —  Operas 
and  heroic  plays —  Otway,  Congreve,  and  Farquhar —  Dry  den's 
prose  and  verse .  .  .  200 

CHAPTER   XI 
THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD 

1700-1760 

Growth  of  journalism  —  Defoe's  Robinson  Crusoe  —  Swift's  Gul- 
liver1 s  Travels —  The  Tatler  and  The  Spectator  by  Addison 
and  Steele  —  Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson  —  Burke's  Speech  on 
Conciliation  with  America  —  Pope's  Rape  of  the  Lock  —  Thom- 
son, Gray,  and  Collins 216 

CHAPTER   XII 
RISE  OF  THE  NOVEL 

Earlier  English  narratives  —  Distinction  between  a  romance  and  a 
novel — Letters  by  standard  writers  —  Richardson's  novels  in 
the  form  of  letters  —  Fielding,  Sterne,  Walpole,  and  Smollett  — 
Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefield 246 


XVI  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   XIII 

THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 

1760-1837 

PAGE 

Percy's  Eeliques  —  Cowper,  Macpherson,  Chatterton,  and  Blake  — 
Robert  Burns,  the  farmer  poet  —  Wordsworth  —  Coleridge's 
Ancient  Mariner,  etc. — Southey's  Life  of  Nelson — Campbell 
and  Moore  —  Byron's  Childe  Harold,  etc.  —  Shelley  and  Keats 

—  Prose  such  as  Frances  Burney's  Evelina,  Maria  Edgeworth's 
Castle  Rackrent,  Jane  Austen's  novels,  and  the  essays  of  Lamb, 
Landor,  Hazlitt,  Hunt,  and  De  Quincey  —  Scott's  poems  and 
novels 262 

CHAPTER   XIV 
THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 

1837-1900 

Poems  of  Mrs.  Browning  and  of  Fitzgerald  —  Tennyson's  The  Prin- 
cess and  Idylls  of  the  King  —  Browning's  Cavalier  Tunes,  etc. 

—  Hughes's  Tom  Brown's  Schooldays  —  Arnold's  Sohrab  and 
Rustum,  etc.  —  Rossetti,   Morris,    Swinburne,    Davidson,   and 
Thompson  —  Carlyle's  Essay  on  Burns  —  Trevelyan's  Life  of 
Macaulay  —  Macaulay's  essays  and  poems  —  Newman  —  Thack- 
eray's novels  and  lectures  —  Dickens's  novels  —  Mrs.  Gaskell's 
Cranford  —  Reade's    Cloister    and    the    Hearth  —  Kingsley's 
Westward  Ho  I  —  The  sisters  Bronte  —  George  Eliot's  novels  — 
Ruskin's   Sesame  and  Lilies  —  Blackmore's  Lorna  Doom  — 
Huxley's  Autobiography  and  Lay  Sermons  —  Meredith,  Pater, 

and  Hardy  —  Stevenson's  Treasure  Island,  etc.          .         .         .     322 

CHAPTER   XV 
RECENT  LITERATURE 

1900 

Twentieth-century  drama — Messrs.  Shaw,  Barrie,  and  Galsworthy 
are  typical  —  Poetic  drama  has  Mr.  Phillips  —  Irish  dramatic 
movement  —  Poetry  represented  by  men  like  Mr.  Masefield 
(realist)  and  Mr.  Noyes  (idealist)  —  Mr.  Zangwill,  spokesman 
of  the  Ghetto  —  The  short  story  —  Mr.  Kipling's  short  stories, 
etc.  —  Mr.  Chesterton,  critic  .......  410 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE  PAGE 

1.  Colosseum  at  Rome  (interior  restored) 1 

2.  The  Dying  Gaul.     (Capitoline  Museum,  Rome)          ...  3 

3.  Ruins  of  Stonehenge 3 

4.  Ancient  British  Coins 5 

6.  Home  Lands  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  Tribes       .....  10 

6.  Anglo-Saxon  Gleemen.     (Cotton  Ms.)         .        .        .        .        %  14 

7.  Players  on  the  Lute  and  on  the  Double  Flute  Dancing.     (Cot- 

ton Ms.) 19 

8.  Shrine  of  St.  Patrick's  Bell.     (Dublin  Museum)          ...  20 

9.  Dumbarton  Castle 25 

10.  Ship  of  Alfred's  Time.     (From  the  Bayeux  Tapestry)        .        .  27 

11.  King  Alfred.     (From  an  engraving  by  Vertue)   ....  28 

12.  Seaport  of  Tyre 38 

13.  Duel  between  Crusaders 40 

14.  Cordoille  or  Cordelia 43 

15.  Anglo-Norman  Sword  Dance.     (Royal  Ms.)        ....  46 

16.  Plowing  and  Sowing.     (Harleian  Ms.) 63 

17.  Aberdeen  Cathedral "  .        .        .        .57 

18.  Robert  Bruce 58 

19.  Specimen  of  Wyclif's  Bible.     (British  Museum)         ...  60 

20.  Ship  in  Wyclif's  Time.     (Harleian  Ms.,  British  Museum)          .  61 

21.  "Ears  down  to  the  Knees."     (From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch)       .  62 

22.  Geoffrey  Chaucer.     (From  Occleve's  miniature.     Harleian  Ms.)  63 

23.  Canterbury  Cathedral 68 

24.  Chaucer  as  a  Pilgrim.     (Ellesmere  Ms.) 69 

26.  The  Wife  of  Bath.     (Ellesmere  Ms.) 69 

26.  The  Miller.     (Ellesmere  Ms.) 70 

27.  The  Knight.     (Ellesmere  Ms.)     . 70 

28.  Scene  from  the  Inner  Hebrides.     (Photo  by  Cameron)       .        .  80 

29.  Venice •  ...  89 

30.  James  I,  the  Royal  Poet.     (From  an  old  print)  ....  91 

31.  Glastonbury  Abbey,  where  King  Arthur  is  buried      ...  93 

32.  "  Whiles  in  Arms  PI et."     (From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch)     .        .  96 

33.  Stirling  Castle 97 

34.  Dunkeld  Cathedral.     (From  an  old  print) 100 

35.  A  Chester  Pageant.     (From  an  old  print) 109 


xviii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE  PAGE 

36.  Mendicants  on  their  Travels.     (From  the  first  Dutch  version  of 

Brandt's  Ship  of  Fools,  1619) 112 

37.  The  Master  of  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins.       (From  a  Trin.  Coll. 

Cambridge  Ms.) 113 

38.  Court  Mummers.     (Harleian  Ms. ) 114 

39.  Thomas  Sackville 116 

40.  Sir  Philip  Sidney.     (Portrait  by  Grosch) 123 

41.  Edmund   Spenser.      (From   an   engraving  by  W.    H.    Worth- 

ington) 125 

42.  Kilcolman  Castle,  Ireland 126 

43.  Francis  Bacon.     (From  a  painting  by  Paul  van  Somer,  National 

Portrait  Gallery) 130 

44.  Shakespeare's  Globe  Theatre,  burned  down  in  1613.      (Copy- 

right)         133 

45.  William  Shakespeare.      (From  the  Chandos  Portrait,  National 

Portrait  Gallery) 139 

46.  New  Place  and  Holy  Trinity 140 

47.  "  Where  is  my  Romeo  ?"     (By  Piloty)        .        .        .        .        .144 

48.  "  Lock  up  my  doors."     (By  R.  Smirke) 146 

49.  "  When  shall  we  three  meet  again  ?  "     (By  Fuseli)    .         .        .  149 

50.  Glamis  Castle,  residence  of  Macbeth 149 

51.  "  Royal  Dane,  O  answer  me."     (By  Von  Hatten)      .        .        .153 

52.  "Falstaff  — fast  asleep."     (By  Piloty) 154 

53.  A  Cavalier.     (From  the  Meyrick  Collection)       .        .        .        .164 

54.  A  Puritan.     (From  Jeffrey's  Dresses)          .  165 

55.  Hampton  Court  Palace .        .  166 

56.  Ben  Jonson.     (From  the  portrait  by  Honthorst,  National  Por- 

trait Gallery) 171 

57.  Hawthornden,  home  of  Drummond 172 

58.  Francis  Beaumont.     (From  an  engraving  by  H.  Robinson)        .  175 

59.  John  Fletcher.     (From  an  engraving  by  H.  Robinson)       .         .  176 

60.  John  Bunyan.     (From  the  painting  by  Sadler,  National  Portrait 

Gallery) 180 

61.  Bunyan's  Birthplace.     (From  an  old  print)         ....  181 

62.  John  Milton.     (Portrait  drawn   and   engraved  by  Faithorne, 

when  Milton  was  62) 188 

63.  Milton  at  the  Age  of  21.     (From  the  original  Onslow  portrait, 

by  Van  der  Gucht) 188 

64.  Cromwell  visits  Milton.     (From  the  Hurlbut  Collection,  Cleve- 

land, 0.) 192 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xix 

FIGURE  PAGE 

65.  Samuel  Pepys.     (From  the  painting  by  Hayls,  National  Portrait 

Gallery) 203 

66.  Sir  George  Mackenzie.     (From  an  Edinburgh  portrait)      .        .  203 

67.  John  Dryden.     (From  the  painting  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller, 

National  Portrait  Gallery) 206 

68.  Westminster  Abbey  —  Poets'  Corner 208 

69.  Daniel  Defoe.     (From  a  portrait  by  Grosch)       .        .        .        .219 

70.  Jonathan  Swift.     (From  the  painting  ascribed  to  Bindon,  Na- 

tional Gallery  of  Ireland) 222 

71.  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral 222 

72.  Gulliver  and  the  Lilliputians.     (From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch)     .  223 

73.  Joseph  Addison.     (After  Kneller) 225 

74.  The  Spectator.     (From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch)    ....  227 

75.  Sir    Roger    de    Coverley    coming    from    Church.     (By  C.  R. 

Leslie) 228 

76.  Sir  Richard  Steele 229 

77.  Samuel  Johnson.     (From  the  painting  by  Reynolds)          .         .  230 

78.  Edmund  Burke.     (From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch)           .        .        .  233 

79.  Alexander  Pope.     (From  the  painting  by  Richardson)       .        .  235 

80.  Ulysses  gazing  upon  his  dying  dog.     (After  Flaxman)        .        .  236 

81.  Thomas  Gray.     (From  the  portrait  by  Grosch)  ....  240 

82.  Stoke  Poges  Churchyard 241 

83.  Samuel  Richardson 249 

84.  Henry  Fielding.      (From    the  engraving  by   Cazenave,   after 

Reynolds) 251 

85.  Tobias  Smollett.     (From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch)          .        .        .  253 

86.  University  of  Glasgow 254 

87.  Oliver  Goldsmith.     (From  the  painting  by  Reynolds,  National 

Portrait  Gallery) 256 

88.  Trinity  College,  Dublin 257 

89.  William  Cowper.     (After  the  engraving  by  Fillman)          .        .  266 

90.  John  Gilpin.     (From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch)         ....  266 

91.  Thomas  Chatterton.     (From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch)           .        .  269 

92.  Robert  Burns.      (From   the  painting  by   Nasmyth,  National 

Portrait  Gallery) 272 

93.  Birthplace  of  Burns 273 

94.  Highland  Mary's  Grave.     (From  a  photograph)          .        .        .  276 

95.  Highland  Mary 277 

96.  William  Wordsworth.     (After  Lupton's  engraving  of  Haydon's 

portrait) 279 


XX  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

FIGURE  PAGE 

97.  Grasmere  Lake  from  Dove  Cottage    .  279 

98.  Rydal  Mount 280 

99.  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge 282 

100.  " I  shot  the  albatross" 284 

101.  Robert  Southey 286 

102.  Loch  Gyle—  Scene  of  Lord  Ullin's  Daughter    .        .        .        .288 

103.  Thomas  Moore.     (After  portrait  by  Sir  M.  A.  Shee)        .        .    289 

104.  George  Noel  Gordon.     (From  a  portrait  by  Kramer)        .        .291 

105.  Castle  of  Chillon 293 

106.  Dungeon  of  Castle  of  Chillon 293 

107.  Percy   Bysshe   Shelley.     (From   the   portrait   by   A.  Curran, 

National  Portrait  Gallery     .        .        .  .        .        .295 

108.  John   Keats.     (Painted  from   memory   by  Severn  ;  National 

Portrait  Gallery.     Photographed  by  special  permission  of 

Sir  George  Scharf ) 298 

109.  Maria  Edgeworth.     (After  the  painting  by  Chappel)       .        .  302 
110. -Jane  Austen.     (From  an  original  family  portrait)    .        .        .  303 

111.  Charles  Lamb.     (After  the  portrait  by  William  Hazlitt)          .    303 

112.  Thomas   De   Quincey.       (After    the   portrait   by   Sir  J.    W. 

Gordon) 305 

113.  Sir  Walter  Scott.     (From  the  portrait  by  Sir  J.  W.  Gordon)  .  307 

114.  The  Tolbooth  in  the  Canongate,  Edinburgh       .        .        .        .308 

115.  Ellen  Douglas 310 

116.  Loch  Katrine  with  Ellen's  Isle 311 

117.  Ivanhoe 312 

118.  The  Bride  of  Lammermoor.     (From  the  painting  by  Millais)  .  314 

119.  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning.     (From  the  painting  by  Gordi- 

giani) .325 

120.  Alfred  Tennyson.     (From  the  painting  by  Watts)    .         .         .327 

121.  Lancelot  bids  adieu  to  Elaine.     (By  G.  Dore")  .        .        .        .331 

122.  Elaine's  body  on  the  way  to  King  Arthur's  Palace.     (By  G. 

Dore") 332 

123.  King  Arthur  reading  Elaine's  letter.     (By  G.  Dore")         .        .  333 

124.  Robert  Browning 337 

125.  " After  him  the  children  pressed."     The  Pied  Piper.     (By 

J.  G.  Pinwell) 343 

126.  Matthew  Arnold.     (From  the  portrait  by  P.  Sandys)       .        .  344 

127.  Dover  Beach  and  Cliffs 346 

128.  The  Blessed  Damozel.     (Detail  from  the  painting  by  Dante 

Gabriel  Rossetti) 349 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  XXI 


129.  William  Morris.     (Photo  by  Elliot  and  Fry,  London)      .        .  351 

130.  Algernon  Charles  Swinburne .  355 

131.  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.     (From  a  painting)        .         .        .        .  355 

132.  Thomas  Carlyle.     (From  the  painting  by  Whistler,  Glasgow 

Art  Galleries) 359 

133.  Birthplace  of  Carlyle 360 

134.  The  Bastile 362 

135.  Lord  Macaulay.     (From  a  photograph  by  Claudet)  .        .         .  366 

136.  Cardinal  John  Newman.     (From  the  drawing  made  in  1844 

by  George  Richmond,  R.A.) 369 

137.  William   Makepeace    Thackeray.       (From    the    portrait    by 

Laurence,  National  Portrait  Gallery ) 371 

138.  Dickens  in  his  Study  at  Gad's  Hill 375 

139.  Nell  and  her  Grandfather 378 

140.  Gad's  Hill 380 

141.  George  Eliot.     (From  a  photograph) 382 

142.  George  Eliot's  First  Home 384 

143.  Cheyne  Walk,  Chelsea,  where  George  Eliot  died       .        .        .  386 

144.  John  Ruskin.     (From  a  photograph) 387 

145.  George  Meredith 393 

146.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson.     (From  a  photograph)        .        .         .  399 

147.  Stevenson's  schooner  "  Equator"  at  Apia,  Samoa.     (Courtesy 

of  Hon.  J.  H.  Mulligan,  formerly  U.  S.  Consul  at  Samoa)  399 

148.  Samoan  Home  of  Stevenson.    (Courtesy  of  Hon.  J.  H.  Mulligan)  400 

149.  George  Bernard  Shaw 413 

160.    Sir  James  Matthew  Barrie .414 

151.  John  Galsworthy 416 

152.  Stephen  Phillips 417 

153.  William  Butler  Yeats 423 

154.  William  Watson  .        . 428 

155.  John  Masefield 432 

156.  Alfred  Noyes 435 

157.  Joseph  Conrad 438 

158.  Maurice  Hewlett 439 

159.  Eden  Phillpotts 440 

160.  Rudyard  Kipling 446 

161.  Herbert  George  Wells         .                447 

162.  Arnold  Bennett    .  ,  448 


HISTORY  OF  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


CHAPTER  I 

EARLIEST  LITERARY  PERIOD 
PRIOR  TO  449  A.D. 

Byron's  Dying  Gladiator.  —  Look  at  one  of  those  circuses 
of  ancient  Rome.     It  has  no  roof.     Purple  awnings  are  un- 


FIG.  1.  —  Colosseum  (interior  restored). 

furled  to  shade  the  midsummer  sun  from  the  thousands  of 
people  seated  around  the  arena.     The  emperor  has  given 
the  signal  and  the  sports  are  about  to  be^in.     Trained  men, 
B  1 


2  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

runaway  slaves,  or  prisoners  of  war  are  matched  against 
lions  and  other  fierce  creatures.  With  ropes  and  hooks  the 
bodies  are  dragged  off,  the  bloodstained  pit  is  covered  with 
clean  sand,  and  now  comes  a  procession  of  gladiators.  "  Hail ! 
Caesar;  those  about  to  die  salute  thee  !  "  is  their  greeting, as 
they  bow  before  the  emperor.  Retiring  from  the  arena,  they 
return  in  pairs  according  to  the  published  program.  One 
man  has  wounded  his  rival,  and  he  is  looking  up  to  find  out 
whether  he  shall  kill  or  spare. 

I  see  before  me  the  gladiator  lie : 

He  leans  upon  his  hand  —  his  manly  brow 

Consents  to  death,  but  conquers  agony, 

And  his  droop 'd  head  sinks  gradually  low  — 

And  through  his  side  the  last  drops,  ebbing  slow 

From  the  red  gash,  fall  heavy,  one  by  one, 

Like  the  first  of  a  thunder-shower ;  and  now 

The  arena  swims  around  him  —  he  is  gone, 

Ere  ceased  the  inhuman  shout  which  hail'd  the  wretch  who  won. 

He  heard  it,  but  he  heeded  not  —  his  eyes 
Were  with  his  heart,  and  that  was  far  away ; 
He  reck'd  not  of  the  life  he  lost  nor  prize, 
But  where  his  rude  hut  by  the  Danube  lay, 
There  were  his  young  barbarians  all  at  play, 
There  was  their  Dacian  mother. 

—  Canto  IV,  cxl,  cxli. 

In  those  noble  lines  of  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  Byron 
expresses  the  belief  that  the  statue  upon  which  he  gazes  is 
that  of  a  Dacian  from  Austria,  a  Goth,  but  we  now  know 
that  this  is  the  Dying  Gaul,  a  man  from  ancient  Gallia, 
which  became  modern  France.  At  the  time  of  the  Roman 
Empire  the  Britons  were  neighbors  of  the  Gauls,  members  of 
the  same  Keltic  family. 

Most  of  us  are  Aryans.  —  Most  Europeans  and  most 
Americans  belong  to  what  is  called  the  Aryan  or  Indo- 
European  race,  all  the  members  of  which  are  supposed 


EARLIEST  LITERARY  PERIOD 


Capitoline  Museum,  Rome 
FIG.  2.  —  The  Dying  Gaul. 


to  have  been  originally  related  by  blood.  Where  the  old 
homeland  of  the  Aryans  is,  we  do  not  know,  but  we  do  know 
that  a  branch  of  that  race  is  represented  by  the  Kelts,  who 
at  one  time  ruled  over  a 
fourth  of  Europe,  from' 
Ireland  as  far  as  the 
Black  Sea.  Traces  of 
their  influence  they  have 
left  in  the  language  and 
customs  of  France,  Ger- 
many, Switzerland,  and 
western  Europe  as  a 
whole.  The  Christmas 
mistletoe  and  other  elements  in  our  national  customs  are 
usually  regarded  as  of  Keltic  origin. 

The  Earliest  Natives  of  Britain.  —  Long  before  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob  were  born,  men  were  living  in  the  British 
Isles,  but  no  one  can  tell  us  the  name  of  those  men.  Their 
history  is  unwritten,  and  yet  it  may  be  read.  Materials  for 
the  history  of  those  early  days  have  been  found  on  waste 

moorlands  and  on  beds  of  drained 
lakes,  in  the  depths  of  caves  and 
in  burial  mounds.  Besides  the 
ruins  of  Stonehenge,  boats  shaped 
by  means  of  a  stone  axe,  weapons 
of  war  and  of  the  hunt,  are  among 
the  relics  that  tell  their  story  as 

*  IG.  3.  —  Ruins  of  Stonehenge. 

plainly  as  a  printed  book.     At 

first  those  people  hunted  the  wild  boar  and  other  game  of 
the  country,  but  in  later  times  they  learned  to  be  farmers 
as  well  as  hunters.  Doubtless  they  had  folk  dances  or 
simple  plays  as  well  as  choral  songs  and  stories,  some  of 
which  may  have  been  handed  on  from  father  to  son  for 
many  a  century.  Those  were  the  people  that  were  conquered 


4  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

by  the  Kelts,  who  sailed  from  the  continent  of  Europe  hun- 
dreds of  years  before  the  birth  of  Jesus. 

Blending  of  Different  Peoples.  —  Probably  there  is  neither 
a  people  nor  a  language  without  foreign  elements,  for  we  are 
all  unconsciously  influenced  by  what  we  see  and  hear.  When 
the  Kelts  conquered  the  aborigines  of  Britain,  they  appear 
to  have  become  the  aristocracy  of  the  new  country.  Why 
should  they  seek  to  slay  all  or  even  most  of  the  inhabitants 
when  they  could  take  advantage  of  their  services?  The 
Kelts  introduced  the  use  of  metals,  and  they  needed  men 
to  work  in  the  tin  mines  of  Cornwall.  They  used  native 
labor  also  in  horse  and  cattle  breeding,  in  the  manufacture 
of  carts  and  chariots,  and  in  many  other  activities.  Time 
taught  the  Kelts  to  appreciate  the  merits  of  the  original 
inhabitants,  who  gradually  acquired  the  speech  of  their 
conquerors. 

The  Visits  of  Julius  Caesar.  —  In  the  year  55  B.C.  a  fleet 
of  avenging  galleys  might  have  been  seen  approaching  the 
southern  seashore  of  Britain.  Julius  Csesar  was  angry. 
Those  Britons  had  dared  to  assist  their  kinsmen,  the  Gauls, 
in  naval  battles  against  imperial  Rome,  and  they  were  now 
to  be  taught  to  stay  at  home.  Their  courage  proved  of 
little  value  against  the  military  science  of  the  Romans,  who 
at  that  time  did  not  attempt  to  conquer  the  country,  though 
they  invaded  Britain  two  years  in  succession.  In  his 
account  of  those  invasions  Caesar  offers  the  opinion  that  in 
language  and  in  customs  the  Britons  of  the  coast  were  not 
unlike  the  tribes  of  Gauls  nearest  to  Britain. 

Civilization  of  the  Early  Britons.  —  The  language  of  the 
southern  Britons  of  Csesar's  time  seems  to  have  been  the 
parent  of  Welsh  and  of  Cornish,  both  of  which  are  still 
spoken  in  western  England.  Welsh,  Cornish,  as  well  as 
Breton,  which  is  the  language  of  Brittany  in  France,  are 
sisters,  so  to  speak. 


EARLIEST  LITERARY  PERIOD  1 

3.  The  Britons  whom  Caesar  saw  were  Kelts,  much  like 
the  Dying  Gaul  of  Byron's  poem  or  like  the  forefathers  of 
the  Welsh  of  to-day. 

4.  The  Roman  conquest  introduced  writing  among  the 
Britons. 

5.  In  the  country  we  now  call  England,  written  literature 
was  appreciated  long  before  the  Anglo-Saxons  had  arrived 
from  Denmark  and  northern  Germany. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

If  we  forget  what  we  read,  we  are  wasting  time,  and  well-spent 
time  means  more  than  money.  Test  yourself  alone  at  home,  and 
you  will  learn  to  be  thorough  in  all  that  you  undertake.  If  you  can 
answer  these  questions,  you  understand  this  chapter.  It  will  take 
only  about  five  minutes  to  find  out. 

1.  In  what  respects  was  an  old  Roman  circus  different  from 
circus  of  to-day  ?     What  circus  scene  did  Byron  have  in  mind  when 
he  wrote  about  the  Dying  Gaul  ? 

2.  Who  conquered  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  Britain  ?     Is  any 
tribe  in  the  world  known  to  be  without  an  unwritten  literature  ? 

3.  Are  all  Americans  of  the  Aryan  race  ?    Where  do  most  Aryans 
dwell  to-day  ? 

4.  Why  did  Julius  Caesar  invade  Britain?    What  languages 
besides  English  are  now  spoken  by  many  people  in  England  ?     Did 
those  ancient  Britons  know  anything  about  art  or  literature  ? 

5.  Did  the  Romans  stay  long  in  Britain  ?     Did  they  prove  in  any 
way  a  help  to  the  Britons  ?    When  was  writing  first  known  in  Britain  ? 

6.  Did  the  Anglo-Saxons  leave  the  continent  of  Europe  to 
settle  in  a  wilderness  ?     Why  is  English  literature  of  any  interest 
to  people  in  America? 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

All  of  us  have  spare  moments,  and  there  is  no  better  way  to  spend 
them  than  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  and  refinement.  Should 
a  public  or  a  school  library  be  reasonably  near,  form  the  habit  of 
reading  good  books. 

All  volumes  published  abroad  may  be  obtained  through  American 
firms  such  as  Scribner  (N.  Y.),  and  McClurg  (Chicago). 


8  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

In  order  to  gain  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  literary  history  of 
England,  it  is  desirable  to  take  note  of  the  industrial,  social,  and 
political  history  presented  by  works  like  E.  P.  Cheyney,  Introduction 
to  the  Industrial  and  Social  History  of  England,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
$1.40;  E.  P.  Cheyney,  Short  History  of  England,  Bost.  (Ginn), 
$1.40;  S.  R.  Gardiner,  A  Student's  History  of  England,  N.  Y. 
(Longmans),  $3.50;  J.  R.  Green,  Short  History  of  the  English 
People,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $2.50. 

The  following  books  will  also  be  found  useful : 

a.  For  Classes 

A.  P.  Graves,  Welsh  Poetry,  Old  and  New,  in  English  Verse,  N.  Y. 
(Longmans),  $1.00. 

E.  Hull,  The  Poem  Book  of  the  Gael  (translations  from  Irish), 
Chicago  (Browne  and  Ho  well),  $1.60. 

P.  W-.  Joyce,  The  Story  of  Ancient  Irish  Civilization,  N.  Y.  (Long- 
mans), $.50 

D.  Mitchell,  Book  of  Highland  Verse,  Stirling  (Mackay),  4s.  6d. 

C.  Alphonso  Smith,  What  can  Literature  do  for  me,  N.  Y.  (Double- 
day),  $1.00. 

b.   For  Teachers  and  Others 

J.  R.  Allen,  Celtic  Art  in  Pagan  and  Christian  Times,  Phila. 
(Jacobs),  and  London  (Methuen),  $3.00. 

F.  J.  Haverfield,  Roman  Britain,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press),  $1.15. 

E.  Hull,  Text-book  of  Irish  Literature,  N.  Y.  (Benziger  Bros.), 
2  vols.,  ea.  $1.30. 

D.  Hyde,  Literary  History  of  Ireland,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $3.50. 
J.  J.  Jusserand,  Literary   History  of  the  English  People,  N.  Y. 

(Putnam's),  3  vols.  (Vol.  I),  $3.50. 

A.  H.  Lyell,  Roman-British  Architectural  Remains,  N.  Y.  (Put- 
nam's), $2.50. 

A.  S.  Mackenzie,  The  Evolution  of  Literature,  N.  Y.  (Crowell), 
$2.50. 

J.  Rhys,  Celtic  Britain,  Lond.  (Soc.  for  Prom,  of  Chris.  Knowledge). 

B.  C.  A.  Windle,  Remains  of  the  Prehistoric  Age  in  England,  Lond. 
(Methuen). 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD 
449-1066 

Europe  like  an  Angry  Sea.  —  Softly  the  evening  shadows 
fall,  and  up  from  the  shore  comes  the  faint  salt  smell  of  the 
sea.  Far  out  is  the  reflection  of  the  big  yellow  cloud  that 
shimmers  like  frosted  gold  upon  the  water.  Gentle,  gentle 
as  a  mother  with  her  babe  is  the  sea  when  it  is  quiet.  A 
strong  wind  begins  to  whip  it  fiercely ;  then  will  the  sleeping 
giant  rise  and  rush  and  overwhelm. 

Fifteen  hundred  years  ago  Europe  was  like  an  angry  sea. 
Fifteen  hundred  years  ago,  along  the  highways  they  had  made, 
could  be  heard  the  tramp  of  the  departing  legions  as  they 
left  southern  Britain  for  imperial  Rome.  From  the  east  came 
the  Slavs  of  Russia  pressing  in  among  the  Teutonic  or  Ger- 
manic tribes,  that  in  turn  were  clutching  at  the  outposts  of 
the  Roman  Empire.  From  the  north  and  west  came  the 
people  of  Scotland  and  Ireland  against  the  Britons  that  had 
acquired  wealth  and  culture,  and  thus  were  the  Keltic  peoples 
of  the  British  Isles  fighting  against  one  another. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Invasion.  —  For  centuries  the  Romanized 
people  of  the  south  and  east  of  Britain  had  been  forbidden 
the  use  of  arms.  The  choicest  of  their  young  men  had  been 
drafted  into  foreign  legions  to  engage  in  fighting.  Few  of 
these  young  soldiers  ever  returned  to  the  old  homeland. 
Under  these  circumstances  about  the  year  449  the  southern 
Britons  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Angles  l  or  the  Saxons  of 

1  The  Angles,  after  whom  Britannia  was  called  Angle-land  or 
England,  sailed  into  England  from  Schleswig-Holstein,  which  until 
1864  was  under  the  crown  of  Denmark. 

9 


10 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Denmark  and  Germany,  and  after  them  came  the  Jutes,  an- 
other Danish  tribe.  At  first  those  strangers  were  loyal  to 
their  pledges,  but  in  time  they  turned  against  the  unfortunate 
Britons,  burning  what  they  could  not  carry  off  as  plunder. 
Priests  were  slain  even  upon  the  altars. 


FIG.  5.  —  Home  Lands  of  Anglo-Saxon  Tribes. 

For  about  half  a  century  there  was  bitter  warfare. 
"  Sometimes,"  says  Bede,  "  the  natives,  sometimes  their 
enemies,  were  victorious  till  the  year  of  the  siege  of  Badon 
Hill  (493),  when  they  made  no  small  slaughter  of  those  in- 
vaders "  (the  Anglo-Saxons).  Thereafter  the  Britons  and 
the  Anglo-Saxons  gradually  intermingled  and  became  one 
people  called  the  English.  One  of  the  romancers  of  the  four- 
teenth century  identifies  Britons  and  Saxons  in  the  line : 

The  Bretouns  that  beth  Inglisse  now. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  11 

1.    POETRY 

Folk-song.  —  Poetry  of  the  people,  or  folk-song,  is  the 
earliest  of  all  forms  of  verse.  It  is  old,  so  old  that  no  one 
can  tell  when  it  began  to  be  composed.  It  brought  joy  long 
before  professional  poetry  or  writing  was  invented.  Un- 
fortunately the  scant  remains  of  Anglo-Saxon  folk-song  have 
been  so  polished  by  the  professional  poets  and  by  the  monks 
that  we  can  merely  try  to  imagine  how  it  sounded  as  the 
country  people  chanted  it  in  the  fields  or  on  the  village  green. 
The  nearest  approach  to  folk-song  is  found  among  the  charms 
or  magic  verses. 

^TSlagnTVerses.  —  Here  is  the  modern  version  of  a  bit  of 
magic  lore,  not  unlike  some  of  the  charms  or  spells  that  still 
survive  in  a  few  parts  of  Europe  and  America. 

Charm  for  Swarming  Bees 

Take  earth,  throw  it  with  thy  right  hand  under  thy  right  foot,  and 
say: 

"  Take  I  under  foot,  I  have  found  it. 
Lo  !  may  earth  avail  against  every  creature, 
And  against  enmity  and  against  spite, 
And  against  the  big  tongue  of  man." 
Throw  earth  upon  them  when  they  swarm,  and  say : 
"  Sit  ye,  victory-women ;  sink  to  earth, 
Never  fly  ye  wild  to  the  wood  ! 
Be  ye  as  thoughtful  of  my  good 
As  every  man  is  of  food  and  property." 

Traditional  Poetry.  —  Besides  traces  of  folk-verse,  the 
Anglo-Saxons  by  oral  tradition  inherited  poetry  which  takes 
us  back  in  imagination  to  the  continent  of  Europe.  With 
one  or  two  exceptions  there  is  no  reference  in  this  group 
of  poetry  to  persons  of  English  nationality.  For  instance, 
in  the  story  of  Waldere,  which  resembles  a  German-Latin 
poem,  the  hero  and  heroine  belong  to  Gaul.  In  the  story 


12  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  Finn,  who  was  king  of  the  Frisians,  we  read  about  trouble 
with  the  Danes.  The  Elegy  of  Deor,  usually  called  Dear's 
Lament,  resembles  an  old  poem  of  Iceland.  It  is  mainly 
concerned  with  the  Goths. 

Widsith.  —  The  poem  called  Widsith,  which  means  Farway 
or  Far-Travelled,  was  written  down  by  an  English  monk 
about  the  year  1100.  It  is  probably  the  work  of  a  seventh- 
century  poet  or  gleeman  who  made  use  of  the  traditions 
of  ancient  Angel,  the  continental  home  of  the  Angles,  in 
Denmark.  The  gleeman  professes  to  tell  of  the  tribes  among 
which  he  has  sojourned  and  the  chieftains  whom  he  has 
known.  The  heroes  that  are  mentioned  lived  from  the  third 
to  the  sixth  century,  every  one  of  them  prior  to  the  conver- 
sion of  the  Anglo-Saxons  to  Christianity.  Most  scholars 
are  of  the  opinion  that  Widsith  is  the  oldest  Anglo-Saxon 
poem  in  existence. 

Beowulf  Slays  the  Water-Monsters.  —  The  Beowulf,  an 
epic  poem  which  contains  over  three  thousand  lines,  has  its 
opening  scene  in  Denmark,  whereas  the  hero,  after  whom  the 
poem  is  named,  is  from  the  south  of  Sweden.  Here  is  an 
outline  of  the  Beowulf,  which  may  be  taken  as  the  type  of 
heroic  or  traditional  poetry.  Hrpthgar,  king  of  the  Danes, 
has  built  a  splendid-hall.  In  it  he  finds  but  little  pleasure 
because  of  the  unceasing  ravages  of  a  water-monster  named 
Grendel.  who  steals  into  the  hall  by  night,  eating  up  those 
men  whom  he  can  find.  Beowulf,  a  nephew  of  the  king  of 
the  Geats,  a  people  of  southern  Sweden,  hears  of  the  trouble 
in  Denmark.  The  young  hero  sails  across  to  the  island  of 
Zealand,  and  destroys  both  the  monster  and  his  avenging 
mother.  After  receiving  rewards  from  the  Danish  monarch, 
the  young  man  returns  north  to  his  homeland. 

Many  years  pass.  Beowulf's  royal  uncle  has  perished  in 
a  fight  abroad,  and  the  old  man's  son  has  been  slain  by  the 
Swedes.  Beowulf  then  succeeds  to  the  throne  and  reigns 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  13 

a  long  time.  In  his  old  age  he  hears  of  a  vast  treasure  of 
gold  and  jewels,  guarded  by  a  fire  breathing  dragon.  In 
spite  of  the,  cowardice  of  his  followers,  most  of  whom  desert 
him,  he  destroys  the  dragon,  though  in  doing  so  he  is  mor- 
tally wounded. 

Longfellow's  Translation.  —  In  his  Poets  and  Poetry  of 
Europe  Longfellow  gives  the  following  version  of  Beowulf's 
voyage  to  Denmark  : 


Then  went  over  the 

Hurried  by  the  wind, 

The  ship  with  foamy  neck, 

Most  like  a  sea-fowl, 

Till  about  one  hour 

Of  the  second  day 

The  curved  prow 

Had  passed  onward 

So  that  the  sailors 

The  land  saw, 

The  shore-cliffs  shining, 

Mountains  steep, 

And  broad  sea-noses. 

Then  was  the  sea-sailing 

Of  the  Earl  at  an  end. 

Heroic  Poetry  is  Aristocratic.  —  Heroic  poems  such  as  the 
Beowulf  are  arigtiyratin  in  origin.  They  flourish  at  the  court 
of  kings,  because  there  a  professional  minstrel  can  enjoy 
the  leisure  necessary  to  compose  a  long  narrative  in  choice 
words.  All  the  women  are  of  royal  birth,  while  the  men  are 
either  princes  of^cEiefs.  If  at  rare  intervals  a  person  of  lowly 
rank  is  introduced,  his  name  is  not  mentioned.  There  is 
plenty  of  fighting,  but  never  a  word  that  could  not  be  used 
in  polite  society.  JDignity  of  thought  and  simplicity  of 
Style^aake_up  much  of  the  charm  to  be  found  in  the  oldest 
epic  preserved  in  England. 


14 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


The  Popular  Element  in  Court  Poetry.  —  In  large  measure 
the  Anglo-Saxons  had  risen  above  the  primitive  culture  of 
their  forefathers,  but  myth-making .  survives  even  among 
ourselves.  For  instance,  Beowulf's  adventures  with  the 
monster  appear  to  be  derived  from  a  folk-tale  after  the  type 

of  Jack  the  Giant-killer,  who 
is  also  a  favorite  among  the 
Zulus  of  South  Africa.  Tales 
of  this  kind  were  popular 
enough  in  Norway.  Indeed 
the  ancient  god  Thor,  whose 
name,  as  we  all  know,  is  pre- 
served in  the  word  Thursday, 
came  to  be  regarded  as  little 
more  than  a  giant-killer. 
And  yet  when  the  poet  drew 
the  portrait  of  Beowulf,  he 
had  a  historical  person  in 
view.  The  hero  is  a  real 
man,  sane  and  life-like. 
Stories  clustered  about  him 
as  they  now  cluster  about 
distinguished  men  who  have 
become  popular  heroes.  TO 
the  people  of  those  days 
the  water-monsters  seemed 
much  more  real  than  the  sea- 
serpent,  of  which  we  read 
now  and  again  in  our  own  newspapers.  Love  of  romance, 
longing  for  what  is  wonderful,  the  desire  for  thrills,  is  deeply 
rooted  in  human  nature,  asserting  itself  at  all  stages  of  civi- 
lization and  in  every  rank  of  society. 

Authorship  of  the  Beowulf.  —  If  we  desire  to  be  fair  in 
judging  any  work  of  art,  we  must  take  into  account  the  time 


Cotton  MS. 
FIG.  6.  —  Anglo-Saxon  Gleemen. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  15 

of  its  composition.  The  name  of  the  man  who  wrote  the 
Beowulf  in  its  final  form  has  been  forgotten,  but  from  the 
style  of  his  penmanship  it  is  generally  believed  that  he  lived 
in  the  tenth  century.  In  its  present  form  the  poem  cannot 
be  older  tharTtne^sevejotfe- -century,  for  it  contains  many  ex- 
pressions of  Christian  sentiment.  No  doubt  short  heroic 
lays  or  ballads  are  earlier  than  the  epics  of  any  country,  for 
all  that  any  poet  can  hope  to  do  is  to  improve  upon  his  pred- 
ecessors. The  thane  who  celebrated  Beowulf's  exploit 
is  said  to  have  had  a  memory  stored  with  songs,  and  he  re- 
membered many  old  stories. 

The  Beowulf,  however,  is  not  simply  a  collection  of  oral 
poems.  The  hand  of  one  man  is  visible  throughout.  The 
poet  who  gave  unity  to  this  epic  is  the  man  who  is  entitled 
to  the  credit  of  authorship,  even  if  he  found  all  the  literary 
material  at  his  hand.  True  it  is  that  the  poem  had  to  be 
adapted  for  recitation  before  the  clergy,  but  the  man  or  men 
who  inserted  the  Christian  allusions  did  not  alter  the  scope 
and  purpose  of  the  poem.  Rather  he  or  they  took  advantage 
of  its  dignity  and  seriousness  in  order  to  present  the  new 
religion  in  the  framework  of  a  proud  antiquity.  In  short, 
it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Latin  education  and  heroic 
or  traditional  poetry  are  the  two  features  that  distinguish 
the  Anglo-Saxon  period  from  all  others. 

The  Nature  of  Anglo-Saxon  Verse.  —  For  reasons  best 
known  to  themselves  our  Saxon  ancestors  preferred  metaphor 
to  simile.  Anglo-Saxon  verse  lacks  the  smooth  cadence  of 
modern  poetry,  although  one  may  acquire  a  real  liking  for  its 
rugged  vigor.  Alliteration  takes  the  place  of  what  we  call 
rime  or  end-rime.  Each  line  is  in  two  parts,  and  as  a  rule 
there  are  four  stresses  or  accents,  the  first  three  beginning 
with  the  same  letter  of  the  alphabet.  Here  is  a  quotation : 

Ferdon  folctogan  feorran  nean. 

Came  the  folk-leaders  from  far  and  near. 


16  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Besides  accent  and  alliteration  the  Anglo-Saxons,  like  the 
Scandinavians  and  Germans,  were  fond  of  parallelism,  which 
is  so  common  in  the  Old  Testament.  Parallelism  is  merely 
a  repetition  of  the  thought  in  different  words,  and  it  serves 
to  deepen  the  impression  of  the  thought  upon  the  mind. 

Historical  Poetry.  —  Poetry  of  the  people,  or  folk- verse, 
belongs  to  the  common  people,  traditional  or  heroic  poetry 
belongs  mainly  to  the  nobility  and  gentry,  whereas  his- 
torical poetry  is  for  the  whole  nation.  Historical  poetry 
of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  composed  later  than  either  folk- verse 
or  traditional  poetry,  is  the  only  type  that  professes  to  deal 
with  the  national  events  of  England.  Metre  and  language 
are  much  the  same  as  before,  but  the  poet's  point  of  view 
has  changed.  The  historical  poems  are  concerned  with  the 
glory  of  the  nation  rather  than  with  that  of  royalty. 

Historical  Themes.  —  The  earliest  and  most  important  of 
the  historical  poems  is  dated  937,  and  records  the  victory 
at  Brunanburh  of  the  West  Saxons  and  Mercians  of  England 
over  the  Scots  of  the  north  as  well  as  the  Danes  who  had 
settled  in  Ireland.  The  longest  poem  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle  tells  of  the  battle  of  Maldon,  in  which  the  East- 
Saxons  in  the  year  991  were  defeated  by  the  Norsemen, 
whose  leader  is  celebrated  in  Longfellow's  Saga  of  King  Olaf. 

Tennyson's  Version.  —  Anlaf,  theDanish  leader,  was  a  son- 
in-law  of  the  king  of  the  Scots.  They  had  invaded  England. 
In  this  extract  from  Tennyson's  spirited  version  of  the  Battle 
of  Brunanburh  notice  how  the  modern  poet  employs  "  apt 
alliteration's  artful  aid." 

We,  the  West-Saxons, 

Long  as  the  daylight 

Lasted,  in  companies 

Troubled  the  track  of  the  host  that  we  hated. 

Grimly  with  swords  that  were  sharp  from  the  grindstone, 

Fiercely  we  hack'd  at  the  flyers  before  us. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  17 

Mighty  the  Mercian, 
Hard  was  his  hand-play, 
Sparing  not  any  of 
Those  that  with  Anlaf , 
Warriors  over  the 
Weltering  waters 
Borne  in  the  bark's-bosom, 
Drew  to  this  island  : 
Doom'd  to  the  death. 

Five  yourg  kings  put  asleep  by  the  sword-stroke, 
Seven  young  Earls  of  the  army  of  Anlaf 
Fell  on  the  war-field,  numberless  numbers, 
Shipmen  and  Scotsmen. 

Religious  Poetry.  A  School  of  the  Seventh  Century.  — 
What  sort  of  life  did  a  boy  lead  in  one  of  the  early  schools 
of  England  and  Ireland?  The  teachers  were  monks,  and 
they  kept  their  pupils  busy  in  and  around  the  monastery. 
Among  other  subjects  those  lads  had  to  master  lessons  in 
reading,  writing,  spelling,  grammar,  poetry,  history,  and  Latin. 
They  were  also  obliged  to  attend  church  services  and  to  take 
a  hand  in  agriculture  and  manual  training.  The  monks  and 
students  alike  ploughed  and  reaped,  baked  the  bread,  and 
cooked  the  meals.  Even  the  bishops  at  times  did  not 
disdain  to  work  with  their  hands.  As  the  schools  grew  larger 
the  work  was  divided.  Most  of  the  manual  labor  was  per- 
formed by  the  lay  brethren,  while  the  monks  devoted  them- 
selves to  teaching  and  preaching.  Idleness  was  considered 
to  be  the  great  enemy  of  the  soul. 

Csedmon  at  the  Festival  (670?).  —  It  is  in  connection 
with  such  a  school  that  we  find  the  earliest  historical  reference 
to  minstrelsy  in  England.  The  historian  Bede  is  telling 
about  the  poet  Csedmon,  one  of  the  lay  brethren  at  Whitby. 
When  the  villagers  of  northeastern  England  meet  together 
to  amuse  themselves,  every  one  is  expected  to  take  his  turn 


18  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

in  singing  to  the  harp.  About  the  year  JSJO  Caedmon,  who 
has  never  been  able  either  to  improvise  or  to  learn  a  song, 
is  in  the  habit  of  leaving  the  festivals  for  his  home  as  soon  as 
he  sees  the  harp  coming  in  his  direction.  Some  of  these 
songs  may  have  been  short,  perhaps  not  much  longer  than 
the  hymn  learned  by  Csedmon  from  the  angel,  which  con- 
tains only  nine  lines. 

Caedmon's  Dream.  —  As  he  lies  asleep,  in  a  dream  some 
one  stands  by  him  and  says,  "  Csedmon,  sing  me  something." 
To  this  he  replies,  "  I  know  not  how  to  sing,  and  that  is  the 
very  reason  why  I  left  the  festival  and  came  here."  But 
the  one  who  is  talking  with  him  answers,  "  No  matter,  you 
are  to  sing  for  me."  "  Well,  then,"  saith  he,  "  what  is  it 
that  I  must  sing?  "  "  Sing,"  quoth  the  other,  "  the  begin- 
ning of  things  created."  At  this  response  he  immediately 
begins  to  sing  verses  in  praise  of  God  the  Creator,  verses 
that  he  has  never  heard  before. 

Ccedmoris  Hymn 

Now  let  us  laud  the  Lord  of  heaven's  realm, 
The  might  of  the  maker,  the  plan  of  his  mind, 
The  Father's  enactments.     He,  Lord  everlasting, 
Ordained  from  of  old  each  and  every  marvel. 
He,  the  Holy  Creator,  first  fashioned  the  heaven, 
Like  to  a  ceiling,  o'er  the  children  of  earth. 
The  Lord  everlasting  in  later  time  fashioned 
All  mother-earth  as  a  floor  for  mankind  — 
He,  Guardian  of  kinsfolk,  the  Almighty  King. 

This  lyric  effort  so  surprised  Caedmon's  monastic  superiors 
that  they  began  to  educate  him  thoroughly  in  the  Scriptures. 
Subsequently  he  is  said  to  have  composed  poems  upon 
Genesis  and  similar  topics. 

Minstrels  of  the  Seventh  Century.  —  The  preceding  story 
from  Bede  goes  to  show  that  in  Csedmon's  time  minstrelsy 
of  some  kind  was  cultivated  even  by  amateurs  among  the 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD 


19 


people.  Apparently  there  were  also  professional  minstrels, 
if  we  may  accept  a  well-known  story  about  Aldhelm,  the 
English  bishop.  He  used  to  take  up  his  position  on  a  bridge, 
like  a  professional  minstrel,  and  sing  to  the  people  in  order 
to  coax  them  to  the  church  services. 


A  Letter  of  the  Eighth  Century 

Let  the  words  of  God  be  read  at  a  priestly  festival. 
On  such  an  occasion  it  is  seemly  to  listen  to  a  reader,  not 
to  a  lute-player ;  to  the  discourses  of  the  Fathers,  not  the 
poems  of  foreigners.  What  has  Ingeld  to  do  with  Christ? 
Strait  is  the  house;  it  will  not  be  able  to  hold  them  both. 


Cotton  MS. 
FIG.  7.  —  Players  on  the  Lute  and  on  the  Double  Flute  Dancing. 

The  King  of  heaven  does  not  wish  to  have  fellowship  with 
so-called  kings  who  are  heathen  and  lost;  for  the  one  King 
reigns  eternal  in  the  sky,  the  other,  the  lost  heathen,  laments 
in  the  place  below.  In  your  houses  the  voices  of  those  who 
read  should  be  heard,  not  a  mob  of  those  that  are  laughing 
in  the  streets. 


20 


ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 


These  words  are  in  a  Latin  letter  written  in  797  by  Alcuin, 
the  most  noted  teacher  of  his  time.  Evidently  at  the  close 
of  the  eighth  century  the  clergy  knew  of  songs  dealing  with 
a  certain  king  named  Ingeld,  one  of  the  minor  characters  in 
Beowulf.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  countries  of  northern 
Europe  had  a  class  of  minstrels  who  used  to  play  the  harp 
and  recite  heroic  verses  in  village  streets,  or  wherever  they 
could  attract  a  crowd. 

The  Secular  Element.  —  After  the  Anglo-Saxons  had  set- 
tled in  their  new  island  home,  they  began  to  lose  interest 

in    the    gods    of    their    ancestors. 

Missionaries  from  Ireland,  from  lona 
in  Scotland,  and  from  Rome  taught 
them  to  reverence  the  God  whom 
we  worship.  These  good  men  were 
apt  to  regard  all  secular  songs  as 
trivial  or  worldly,  and  therefore 
unworthy  of  being  put  on  record  for 
future  generations.  At  a  time  when 
only  the  clergy  could  write,  it  was 
natural  that  they  should  feel  keenest 
interest  in  religious  poetry. 

We  are  all  aware  that  Anglo-Saxon 
literature  was  composed  under  the 
stress  of  almost  constant  warfare, 
by  a  people  whose  conversion  to 
Christianity  was  comparatively  recent.  The  religious 
poets  do  not  hesitate  to  apply  the  phrases  of  heroic  verse 
to  the  peaceful  journeys  of  apostles.  The  fighting  temper 
was  merely  disguised  by  Christianity,  and  the  clergy  had 
troubles  of  their  own  —  a  feeling  of  the  approach  of  the 
Day  of  Doom  with  all  its  tragedy. 

The  So-called  Caedmonian  Poems.  —  Just  as  there  was 
at  one  time  a  close  connection  between  public  worship  and 


Dublin  Museum 

FIG.  8.  — Shrine  of  St. 
Patrick's  Bell. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  21 

the  drama,  so  there  is  a  relationship  between  the  church 
calendar  and  the  religious  poetry.  For  a  long  time  Csedmon 
was  supposed  to  have  written  other  poems  known  as  Genesis, 
Exodus,  Daniel,  and  Christ  and  Satan.  To-day  the  general 
belief  is  that  no  one  man  wrote  the  four  poems,  and  that  it 
is  doubtful  if  Csedmon  composed  any  part  of  them.  Whether 
they  are  Csedmon's  or  not,  it  is  scarcely  fair  to  describe  them 
as  paraphrases  of  Scripture,  for  they  exhibit  no  little  origi- 
nality. 

What  are  Runes  ?  —  In  reading  Anglo-Saxon  literature 
we  occasionally  come  across  ^rujifis.  Runic  writing  is  a 
modification  of  the  Latin  alphabet.  Marks  that  are  not 
understood  are  mysterious,  and  so  these  strange  symbols 
were  called  runes,  which  is  simply  the  Anglo-Saxon  word 
run,  meaning  mystery  or  secret.  Runes  were  forbidden  by 
the  church  because  of  their  connection  with  heathen  magic, 
and  we  now  employ  the  Roman  or  Latin  alphabet  in  ordinary 
penmanship  and  printing. 

A  Scottish  Runic  Cross.  —  A  few  miles  away  from  the 
Solway  Firth  you  can  see  the  spot  where  John  Paul  Jones, 
the  noted  sea-fighter  of  the  American  Revolution,  first  looked 
into  his  mother's  eyes.  On  mossy  ground  the  white  tufts 
of  cotton-grass  bow  to  the  breeze.  Yonder,  under  the  clear 
green  sky,  glistens  the  treacherous  silver  of  the  Solway  Firth, 
on  whose  southern  shore  lies  England.  We  are  in  the  parish 
of  Ruthwell  on  the  Dumfriesshire  coast.  About  eighteen 
feet  into  the  air  rises  a  cross  of  sandstone,  chiselled  with 
ornamental  designs.  Carved  upon  it  is  an  inscription  in  the 
Roman  alphabet  and  in  runes.  The  mason  who  carved  these 
runes  has  been  dead  for  nearly  a  thousand  years. 

The  Dream  of  the  Cross.  —  The  date  and  authorship  of  the 
Dream  of  the  Cross  are  unknown,  though  the  poem  may  belong 
to  the  eighth  or  ninth  century.  The  poet  is  not  describing 
the  Ruthwell  cross,  which  is  of  later  date  than  the  poem. 


22  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

He  tells  of  a  glorified  cross  which  he  beholds  in  a  midnight 
vision,  the  cross  upon  which  Jesus  was  crucified.  After  a 
long  time  he  hears  the  cross  giving  utterance  to  its  own  story, 
parts  of  which  are  similar  to  the  runic  inscription  of  the 
Scottish  border.  This  is  part  of  the  passage  that  resembles 
the  runes  of  Ruthwell : 

Then  the  youthful  Hero  girt  Himself  about, 

He  that  was  God  Almighty,  strong  and  firm ; 

Bravely  in  sight  of  many  did  He  ascend 

The  cross  exalted,  when  He  would  free  mankind. 

Then,  when  the  Hero  clasped  me,  I  did  quiver ; 

Yet  I  durst  not  bend  toward  the  ground  nor  fall 

Unto  the  earth,  but  I  must  needs  stand  fast. 

A  cross  raised  up,  rich  was  the  King  I  lifted, 

Lifted  the  Lord  of  heaven ;  and  durst  not  lean. 

Dark  were  the  nails  that  darted  through  me ;  visible 

Upon  me  still  are  scars,  the  wounds  of  sin, 

Yet  durst  I  not  disable  one  of  them. 

They  taunted  us  both  together :  then  was  I 

Bedewed  with  blood  that  burst  forth  from  this  Hero's  side, 

When  finally  He  forth  His  spirit  breathed. 

The  Keltic  Element  in  Anglo-Saxon  Literature.  —  To  what 
extent  did  the  Kelts  influence  Anglo-Saxon  literature?  The 
question  is  not  likely  to  receive  a  final  answer  for  some  time 
to  come.  The  Anglo-Saxons  were  settled  among  a  powerful 
group  of  Keltic  peoples.  Occupying  the  southern  part  of 
a  comparatively  small  island,  the  inhabitants  of  England 
were  partly  Kymric  or  Briton  and  partly  Saxon,  and  doubtless 
some  of  the  clergy  and  writers  were  of  Kelto-Saxon  descent. 
Irish  and  Scots  missionaries,  all  of  them  Kelts,  founded 
monasteries  and  taught  throughout  England  and  Europe. 

More  imaginative,  more  emotional,  more  playful,  more 
sensitive  to  the  hidden  aspects  of  life,  is  Keltic  literature  than 
Anglo-Saxon.  In  spite  of  its  tragic  theme  the  Dream  of  the 
Cross  has  less  gloom  and  greater  variety  of  thought  and  style 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  23 

than  Beowulf.  The  Dream  reveals  a  radiance  in  the  gloom, 
a  grace  of  fancy,  that  may  have  sprung  from  Keltic  sources. 

Cynewulf ' s  Works.  —  Next  to  the  unknown  author  of  the 
Beowulf,  the  ablest  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  poets  is  Cynewulf, 
who  was  born  about  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century.  It  is 
evident  that  he  had  ideas  of  his  own,  for  he  was  the  only 
one  of  the  early  poets  who  signed  his  compositions.  His 
name  is  ingeniously  woven  into  the  verses  in  runes.  He  may 
have  written  other  poems,  but  those  that  are  signed  are 
Juliana,  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles,  Elene,  and  the  Christ. 

Cynewulf  must  have  been  a  man  of  liberal  views,  for  runes 
were  under  suspicion.  In  the  popular  mind  they  were  linked 
with  the  black  magic  of  witchcraft.  Moreover,  he  appears 
to  have  been  familiar  with  the  old  heroic  poetry,  for  like  the 
early  heroes  of  his  race  he  was  anxious  not  to  be  forgotten. 
In  Cynewulf  s  works  the  older  heathen  fatalism  makes  way 
for  the  good  news  of  the  new  religion,  but  there  is  still  a 
haunting  echo  of  the  epic  lilt  and  heroic  pomp  of  bygone 
days.  Though  they  were  written  in  the  cloister,  there 
remains  enough  of  the  world  in  them  to  show  that  he  had 
not  forgotten  the  ideals  of  traditional  poetry.  It  is  the 
atmosphere  of  medieval  legend  that  we  breathe  when  we 
begin  to  read  Juliana,  The  Fates  of  the  Apostles,  and  Elene, 
whereas  the  Christ  treats  of  the  birth  and  the  ascension,  as 
well  as  doomsday,  or  the  day  of  judgment. 

Birds  of  the  Poets.  —  The  animals  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry, 
real  or  fanciful,  are  of  profound  interest,  and  this  is  especially 
true  of  the  birds.  We  hear  the  cuckoo  foretelling  sorrow,  the 
sweet  plaintive  notes  of  the  nightingale,  the  wild  swan 
flying  high  over  the  village,  the  wail  of  the  water-hen,  the 
hoarse  cries  of  the  sea-gull  and  the  sea-swallow.  Again  and 
again  we  listen  to  the  scream  of  the  eagle  swooping  down 
from  the  rocky  cliff,  and  we  watch  the  hawk  and  the  raven 
hovering  over  the  silent  figures  of  the  battlefield.  'Tis  only 


24  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

in  the  religious  poems  that  we  behold  the  gentle  dove  preen- 
ing her  feathers.  Through  the  Kelts  came  knowledge  of  the 
high-bred  falcon,  but  the  phoenix  came  from  the  Romans. 

Far  away  in  the  east  lies  a  peerless  island,  in  whose  forest 
dwells  a  bird  of  entrancing  beauty.  Once  every  thousand 
years  he  flies  westward  to  a  tree  where  he  builds  a  nest. 
He  permits  himself  to  be  burned  therein,  rising  again  from 
the  ashes,  young  and  vigorous.  This  is  one  of  the  forms  of 
a  myth  concerning  the  phcenix,  typical  of  man's  craving  for 
eternal  youth.  Coins  of  the  early  Christian  emperors  were 
often  stamped  with  an  image  of  the  phoenix,  which  was  at 
first  an  emblem  of  sun-worship,  the  memory  of  which  is  kept 
green  by  our  word  Sunday.  This  wondrous  creature  passed 
from  the  old  to  the  new  religion,  and  has  been  celebrated  in 
many  a  song  and  many  a  sermon. 

The  Classical  Element  in  Anglo-Saxon  Poetry.  —  Based 
upon  the  Latin  is  an  allegorical  poem  or  poetic  sermon  called 
The  Phcenix,  consisting  of  nearly  seven  hundred  lines. 
Though  the  date  and  authorsjiip  are  unknown,  its  author 
evidently  made  use  of  several  classical  poems.  All  scholars 
of  those  days  wrote  and  spoke  Latin,  as  they  did  for  centuries 
later,  and  the  classic  influence  has  put  its  color  even  into  parts 
of  the  Beowulf. 

The  first  part  of  The  Phcenix  is  a  description  of  the  bird 
and  its  habits,  while  the  second  part  is  an  application  of  its 
fabulous  qualities  to  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection.  This 
old  English  poem  may  go  into  too  much  detail  for  a  busy 
age  like  ours,  yet  it  glows  with  the  lustre  of  classical  imagery. 
Opening  his  own  heart  at  times,  the  poet  sets  forth  ideals 
that  may  never  perish,  and  ideals  have  touched  and  taught 
the  world  more  than  have  facts. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD 


25 


2.   PROSE 

Who  was  Gildas  (5167-570)  ?  —  The  earliest  extant  record 
of  Britain  was  written  by  Gildas.  Bede  was  the  first  of 
Anglo-Saxon  prose  writers,  but  most  of  what  he  knew  con- 
cerning fifth-century  Britain  is  derived  from  The  Ruin  of 
Britannia,  which  deals  with  that  part  of  Britain  inhabited 
by  the  Britons  or  Welsh.  Written  about  the  year  548,  this 
work  was  penned  in  Latin  by  Gildas,  who  relied  to  some 
extent  upon  native  traditions. 

Gildas,  the  best-known  churchman  of  his  time,  appears 
to  have  been  the  son  of  a  king  in  Alcylde,  now  named  Dum- 
barton, in  the  south  of  Scot- 
land. Bede  quotes  freely 
from  Gildas,  who  was  far  from 
pleased  with  the  spiritual 
state  of  the  Britons,  his  fel- 
low-countrymen. The  date 
of  the  death  of  Gildas  is  usu- 
ally given  as  570,  which  is 
about  the  time  of  the  birth 
of  Mohammed  in  Arabia. 

The  King  and  the  Beggars. 
-  For  sixteen  long  years 
Oswald,  king  of  Northumbria, 
the  northeastern  province  of 
England,  had  been  an  exile 
in  the  little  Scottish  isle  of 
lona.  From  that  seat  of 
learning  he  welcomed  Bishop  Aidan  and  other  missionaries 
to  his  kingdom.  One  Easter  day  the  king  was  sitting  at 
dinner  with  the  bishop,  and  on  the  table  was  a  silver  dish 
full  of  dainties.  Word  was  brought  to  the  king  that  a 
number  of  starving  people  were  waiting  outside  for  alms. 


FIG.  9.  —  Dumbarton  Castle. 


26  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

At  once  he  sent  food  to  them,  ordering  that  the  silver  dish 
should  be  broken  and  divided  among  them.  This  is  only 
one  of  many  fine  stories  recorded  by  Bede,  who  was  by 
far  the  most  illustrious  man  of  the  seventh  century. 

Bede's  Church  History. — It  is  difficult  to  realize  thegenius 
of  a  man  who  in  those  early  days  could  write  about  forty 
volumes.  He  wrote  mostly  in  Latin,  for  in  that  way  he  was 
sure  of  having  his  works  understood  by  learned  men  of  any 
European  country.  It  is  his  Church  History  of  England  that 
entitles  him  to  a  place  in  English  Literature^  for  without  it 
two  or  three  centuries  would  be  almost  a  blank.  His  real 
purpose  was  to  write  the  history  of  Christianity  in  England, 
but  the  book  gives  many  a  picture  of  the  everyday  life  of  the 
people.  Bede  spent  most  of  his  life  in  the  monastery  at 
Jarrow.  He  took  a  great  interest  in  the  common  people, 
and  chose  the  message  of  love  contained  in  the  Gospel  of  St. 
John  for  translation  into  Anglo-Saxon,  the  language  of  the 
people.  What  a  pity  that  this  work  has  perished !  Bede 
was  sixty-two  years  old  when  he  died  in  735,  respected  and 
beloved  by  everybody. 

The  Saxon  Chronicles.  —  Seven  manuscripts  of  the  Saxon 
or  Anglo-Saxon  chronicles  have  been  preserved,  the  Winches- 
ter chronicle  being  generally  regarded  as  the  oldest.  They 
are  based  upon  earlier  chronicles,  which  were  combined  and 
expanded  under  the  supervision  of  King  Alfred.  The  entries 
begin  with  the  year  60  B.C.  and  end  with  the  year  1154  A.D. 
The  annals  of  the  earlier  centuries  seem  to  have  been  in- 
serted in  the  time  of  Alfred,  who  probably  desired  to  make 
the  annals  national  in  scope  rather  than  local.  From  his 
time  onward  until  the  twelfth  century,  the  historical  notes 
were  made  independently  at  different  monasteries. 

Some  of  these  records  represent  the  oldest  extant  speci- 
mens of  Anglo-Saxon  prose,  while  those  of  the  tenth  century 
include  poems  like  the  Battle  of  Brunanburh.  The  following 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD 


27 


entry,  besides  being  of  interest  from  a  naval  point  of  view, 
may  give  an  idea  of  the  style  of  the  Chronicles. 


From  the  Bayeux  Tapestry 
FIG.  10.  —  Ship  of  Alfred's  Time. 

A.D.  897.  That  same  year  (Danish)  troops  from  among  the 
East  Anglians  and  from  among  the  Northumbrians  greatly 
troubled  the  land  of  the  West  Saxons,  on  the  south  coast,  with 
plundering  bands,  most  of  all  with  the  ash-skiffs  which  they 
many  years  before  had  constructed.  Then  King  Alfred  gave 
orders  to  construct  long  ships  against  the  ash-skiffs ;  they  were 
almost  twice  as  long  as  the  others ;  some  had  sixty  oars,  others 
more ;  they  were  both  swifter  and  steadier  and  higher,  too,  than 
the  others;  they  were  modeled  neither  on  Frisian  nor  on' 
Danish  lines,  but  as  it  seemed  to  him  that  they  could  be  of  most 
avail.  .  .  .  But  two  of  them  (Danes)  there  the  sea  cast 
ashore,  and  the  men  were  taken  to  Winchester  to  the  king,  and 
there  he  gave  orders  to  hang  them. 

Alfred  the  Great  (849-901).  —  With  a  gallant  company 
of  sportsmen  the  king  is  cantering  over  rustling  leaves,  white 


28 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


and  crisp  with  October  frost,  on  the  way  home  from  the  lonely 
haunts  of  grouse  and  heron,  red  deer  and  wild  boar.  It  is 
at  the  monastery  that  they  now  draw  rein,  and  the  king 
enters  to  examine  a  rare  manuscript  which  recently  was 
brought  by  a  pilgrim  from  Italy.  Glance  for  a  moment 

at  those  sedate  monks, 
some  toiling  at  the  fur- 
nace, others  using  grav- 
ing-tool  or  paint  brush. 
They  are  creating  the 
choicest  of  bells,  jewelry, 
stained  glass,  and  il- 
luminated manuscripts. 
But  this  is  merely  the 
sunny  side  of  the  life  of 
Alfred  the  Great.  Long 
hung  the  war-clouds  over 
England,  and  the  wonder 
is  that  the  royal  warrior 
should  have  had  either 
time  or  taste  for  the 

From  engraving  by  Venue         ,   .    ,  ,   .  ... 

.,  T_.      A1,  higher    things    ot    lite. 

FIG.   11.  —  King  Alfred. 

Over  a  thousand  years 

have  passed  since  Alfred  was  laid  to  rest  with  his  kinsmen, 
yet  he  still  ranks  as  one  of  the  noblest  figures  in  English 
history. 

He  Prepares  Books  for  his  People.  —  The  king  recognized 
that  all  countries  may  learn  much  from  each  other,  and  he 
encouraged  foreigners  to  visit  his  court.  In  order  that  his 
beloved  people  might  enjoy  some  of  the  wisdom  of  the  past, 
he  and  his  associates  translated  several  great  books  from 
Latin  into  the  language  of  England.  One  of  these,  dealing 
with  the  art  of  teaching,  was  called  the  Pastoral  Care,  written 
by  Pope  Gregory  the  Great,  who  had  done  so  much  for  Eng- 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  29 

land.  Another  was  a  history  of  the  world  by  a  Spaniard 
named  Orosius.  A  third  was  a  famous  work  called  the 
Consolation  of  Philosophy,  composed  by  a  Roman  consul 
named  Boethius,  while  he  was  in  prison.  A  fourth  was  Bede's 
history  of  England.  The  fifth  was  Soliloquies,  or  thoughts 
of  St.  Augustine,  a  native  of  Numidia,  which  is  nearly  the 
same  as  Algeria,  in  North  Africa.  We  must  take  care  not 
to  confuse  him  with  the  missionary  who  went  from  Italy  to 
England  in  597. 

Alfred's  translations  are  not  slavish  copies  of  the  original, 
but  contain  independent  matter,  the  prefaces  being  enlivened 
with  personal  allusions.  Most  of  this  work  is  supposed  to 
have  been  done  during  the  ten  or  twelve  years  before  Alfred's 
death,  which  occurred  in  901. 

Three  Causes  of  Literary  Change.  —  Changes  in  the  style 
and  thought  of  literature  are  usually  so  gradual  that  it  is 
hard  to  tell  when,  where,  and  why  they  occurred.  Never- 
theless there  are  good  reasons  for  believing  that  the  changes 
in  Anglo-Saxon  literature  were  brought  about  by  three  main 
causes  —  Keltic,  Latin,  and  Danish. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  Keltic  and  Latin 
influence  upon  the  church,  which  in  turn  affected  society. 
Not  only  were  the  Gaels  or  Kelts  of  Scotland  and  Ireland 
teaching  in  England  for  centuries,  but  Bede  points  out  that 
as  early  as  the  seventh  century  many  of  the  English  nobility 
and  gentry  crossed  to  Ireland  in  order  to  study  at  different 
institutions  of  learning. 

In  that  same  seventh  century  Englishwomen  went  to  Gaul 
for  instruction,  because  the  French  monasteries  had  superior 
facilities  for  women's  education.  Before  the  eighth  century 
England  possessed  some  fine  libraries,  most  of  whose  manu- 
scripts were  written  in  Latin,  opening  up  a  new  world  of 
thought.  It  is  impossible  for  us  to  believe  that  Latin  could 
be  the  international  language  of  Europe  as  well  as  the  chief 


30  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

language  of  the  Church,  and  yet  leave  no  impress  upon  Anglo- 
Saxon  literature. 

Danish  Influence.  —  The  third  main  cause  of  change  in 
the  course  of  the  development  of  Anglo-Saxon  literature  was 
Danish  or  Scandinavian.  Scandinavia,  as  we  all  remember, 
is  the  name  commonly  applied  to  Norway  and  Sweden, 
whose  people  are  much  the  same  as  those  of  Denmark.  For 
over  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  from  the  eighth  to  the 
eleventh  century,  the  Danes,  joined  later  by  the  Norwegians 
or  Norsemen,  left  their  mark  upon  the  British  Isles  and  upon 
every  shore  of  Europe.  The  ablest  seamen  in  Europe,  they 
took  summer  trips  to  England  for  the  sake  of  adventure. 
Those  visits  led  to  permanent  settlements  in  the  north  and 
midlands,  and  so  successful  were  they  that  in  the  eleventh 
century  Danish  kings  reigned  over  England. 

Those  sea-rovers  or  vikings  looted  the  churches  and 
monasteries,  burned  the  libraries,  slew  the  abbots  and  monks, 
and  brought  about  the  decay  of  learning.  Some  of  their 
words  became  a  part  of  the  English  language,  and  the  North- 
men's descendants  are  in  England  to  this  day. 

JE]fnc  (955  ?-io2o  ?) .  —  Besides  religious  works  and 
translations,  Anglo-Saxon  prose  includes  biographical,  medi- 
cal, and  other  scientific  manuscripts  as  well  as  legal  and 
other  documents.  ^Elfric  was  born  about  955  and  died 
subsequent  to  1020.  Educated  at  Winchester,  he  became  the 
best  prose  writer  of  his  time,  producing  many  sermons  or 
Homilies  as  well  as  text-books  for  the  use  of  boys  in  the 
schools. 

Wulfstan  (died  1023).  —  For  years  ^Elfric  and  Wulf- 
stan  labored  earnestly  for  the  betterment  of  education 
and  religion  in  England.  An  extract  from  a  discourse, 
delivered  in  1014,  may  serve  as  a  specimen  of  Wulfstan's 
style,  and  illustrate  Danish  influence  in  England. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  31 

England  and  the  Danes 

For  a  long  time  now  it  has  not  been  good  for  us  at  home  or 
abroad,  but  there  have  been  a  (Danish)  army  and  hatred  on 
every  side  time  and  again,  and  the  English  now  for  a  long  time 
without  victory  and  too  greatly  disheartened  through  God's 
anger,  and  the  shipmen  (Danes)  so  strong  through  God's 
sanction  that  often  in  fight  one  puts  to  flight  ten,  and  two 
often  twenty,  all  on  account  of  our  sins.  .  .  .  And  often  a 
thrall  forcibly  ties  fast  the  thane  who  before  was  his  lord,  and 
makes  him  as  a  thrall  through  God's  anger.  Often  two  seamen 
(Danes)  or  three  drive  the  droves  of  Christian  men,  from  sea 
to  sea  out  through  this  nation,  bound  together  to  the  worldly 
shame  of  us  all,  if  we  in  earnest  knew  any  shame.  But  all  the 
disgrace,  that  we  often  endure,  we  repay  with  homage  to  those 
that  shame  us.  We  give  to  them  continually,  and  they  humili- 
ate us  daily.  They  harry  and  they  burn,  rob  and  ravage,  and 
take  aboard. 

SUMMARY 

1.  In   the  fifth   century   the   Slavs,    represented   to-day 
chiefly  by  the  Russians,  Poles,  and  Bulgars,  were  pushing  the 
Teutonic  or  Germanic  tribes  westward,  and  these  in  turn 
were  pushing  in  upon  the  Roman  Empire.     Thus  came  the 
Anglo-Saxon   invasion   of   England   in   449.     Some   of  the 
poetry  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  was  composed  and  sung  by  the 
common  people.     This  folk-verse,  or  poetry  of  the  people, 
comprises  charms  or  magic  verses,  and  other  simple  forms  of 
poetry. 

2.  Another    type    of    Anglo-Saxon   verse    is    traditional 
poetry,  which,  like  folk-verse,  was  at  first  not  written  but 
remembered,  and  passed  on  from  one  generation  to  another. 
The  best  specimen  is  the  Beowulf,  which  tells  about  the 
exploits  of  a  Swedish  hero  in  Denmark  and  in  his  homeland. 

3.  A  third  kind  of  verse  is  known  as  historical  poetry. 
Traditional   poetry  was   chiefly  for   people  of  high    rank, 
whereas  historical  poetry  is  for  everybody,  rich  or  poor. 


32  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

It  is  the  earliest  national  poetry  of  England,  and  is  well  rep- 
resented by  such  works  as  the  Batik  of  Brunanburh,  the 
story  of  a  conflict  in  937. 

4.  A  fourth  kind  of  verse  is  religious  poetry,  which  was 
due  to  the  influence  of  the  new  Christian  religion.     The  two 
representative  poets  of  this  class  are  Csedmon  of  the  seventh 
century  and  Cynewulf  of  the  eighth. 

5.  Runes   belong   principally  to   the   Anglo-Saxons   and 
Scandinavians.     There  is  a  runic  inscription  on  the  Ruthwell 
Cross,  which  stands  near  the  border  of  Scotland  and  Eng- 
land.    The  Dream  of  the  Cross  is  a  poem  that  must  have 
been  known  by  the  man  who  had  the  runes  carved  upon  the 
Scottish  cross. 

6.  The  clergy  were  the  only  people  that  knew  enough  to 
be  able  to  teach.     Through  the  church  the  later  literature 
was  modified  by  Keltic  and  classical  influence.     For  instance, 
The  Phoenix  and  other  works  were  borrowed  direct  from 
Latin  literature.  * 

7.  Prose  written  by  a  native  of  Britain  begins  with  Gildas, 
who  was  not  an  Anglo-Saxon  but  a  Keltic  Briton.     English 
history  of  the  fifth  century  is  mainly  based  upon  his  Ruin  of 
Britannia,  written  in  Latin. 

8.  The  oldest  specimens  of  Anglo-Saxon  prose  are  in  the 
Saxon  Chronicles,  which  were  penned  in  different  monasteries 
for  hundreds  of  years. 

9.  Alfred  wrote  more  Anglo-Saxon  prose  than  any  one 
before  his  time.     He  wished  to  have  his  people  able  to  read 
their  own  language,  and  he  translated  foreign  books. 

10.  From  the  eighth  to  the  eleventh  century  the  influence 
of  the  Danes  was  hurtful  to  the  progress  of  Anglo-Saxon 
literature,  because  they  burned  the  libraries  and  had  little 
or  no  respect  for  education. 


THE  ANGLO-SAXON  PERIOD  33 


TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  poetry  of  the  people  ? 

2.  To  what  type  of  poetry  does'  the  Beowulf  belong  ?    Tell  the 
story  of  this  epic  in  your  own  words.     If  the  poem  was  at  first  a 
heathen  one,  why  does  it  mention  Christianity? 

%3.   What  are  the  three  peculiarities  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry? 

4.  Distinguish  between  traditional  and  historical  poetry.     Illus- 
trate. 

5.  What  was  Csedmon's  dream?    Do  you  remember  anything 
about  the  Csedmonian  poems  ? 

6.  What  is  the  connection  between  the  Ruth  well  Cross  and  the 
Dream  of  the  Cross  f 

7.  Name  one  or  more  of  the  signed  poems  of  Cynewulf,  and 
state  why  their  author  seems  to  have  been  liberal-minded. 

8.  Can  you  recall  any  birds  of  Anglo-Saxon  poetry  ?    Why  was 
the  bird-poem  called  The  Phoenix  written  ? 

9.  What  is  the  relation  of  Bede  to  Gildas  ? 

10.  How  did  Alfred  increase  the  value  of  the  Saxon  Chronicles  f 
Why  was  he  so  anxious  for  translations  from  Latin?    Name  any 
book  in  which  he  was  interested. 

11.  Two  things  strengthened  and  one  thing  weakened  the  life  of 
Anglo-Saxon  literature.     What  were  they  ? 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 
a.  For  Classes 

W.  C.  Bronson,  English  Poems  (Old  and  Middle  English  Periods), 
Chicago  (Univ.  of  Chic.  Press),  $1.00. 

A.  S.  Cook  and  C.  B.  Tinker,  Select  Translations  from  Old  English 
Poetry,  Boston  (Ginn),  $1.00. 

A.  S.  Cook  and  C.  B.  Tinker,  Select  Trans,  from  0.  E.  Prose, 
Boston  (Ginn),  $1.25. 

G.  E.  and  W.  H.  Hadow,  Oxford  Treasury  of  English  Literature, 
3  vols.,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press),  $.90  each. 

A.  G.  Newcomer  and  A.  E.  Andrews,  Twelve  Centuries  of  English 
Poetry  and  Prose,  Chic.  (Scott,  Foresman),  $1.75. 

V.  D.  Scudder,  Bede's  Ecclesiastical  History,  N.  Y.  (Dutton),  $.35. 

F.  J.  Snell,  The  Age  of  Alfred,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.00. 

A.  Zimmern,  Gods  and  Heroes  of  the  North,  N.  Y.  (Longmans),  $.30. 


34  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


b.   For  Teachers  and  Others 

S.  A.  Brooke,  History  of  Early  English  Literature,  N.  Y.  (Mac- 
millan),  $2.50. 

H.  M.  Chadwick,  The  Heroic  Age,  N.  Y.  (Putnam's),  $4.00. 
R.  W.  Chambers,  Widsith,  N.  Y.  (Putnam's),  $1.50. 

E.  E.  C.  Gomme,  Anglo-Saxon  Chronicle,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
$2.00. 

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tions of  Beowulf,  Widsith,  etc.,  $1.10. 

D.  A.  Mackenzie,  Teutonic  Myth  and  Legend,  Lond.  (Gresham). 

W.  J.  Sedgefield,  Beowulf,  2d  ed.,  N.  Y.  (Longmans),  A.  S.  text, 
with  notes,  etc.,  $3.00. 

H.  A.  Taine,  History  of  English  Literature,  N.  Y.  (Holt), 
4  vols.,  $6.00.  Abridged  edition  at  $1.40. 

B.  ten  Brink,  Early  English  Literature,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  vol.  I  to 
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CHAPTER  III 

^          THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD 

1066-1300 

The  Normans  in  England.  —  It  was  in  the  eleventh 
century  that  for  the  fourth  and  last  time  England  was  in- 
vaded and  occupied  by  strangers.  Not  to  speak  of  the  pre- 
historic people,  whose  real  name  we  do  not  know,  the  Kelts, 
the  Anglo-Saxons,  the  Danes,  and  the  Normans  have  all 
mingled  to  form  the  English-speaking  nations  of  the  world. 
Gaul  of  the  Roman  Empire  became  France,  after  it  fell 
into  the  hands  of  Teutonic  or  Germanic  tribes,  chief  of  whom 
were  the  Franks.  The  northern  Gauls  and  Franks,  now 
called  French,  were  overpowered  by  bands  of  sea-rovers, 
mostly  from  Norway.  When  these  Northmen  intermarried 
with  the  French,  they  came  to  be  known  as  Normans.  The 
Normans,  like  the  Franks,  lost  their  own  language,  and 
adopted  that  of  the  old  Gauls  and  Romans.  Thus  when 
William  of  Normandy  became  king  of  England  in  1066,  he 
and  his  men  used  the  French  language. 

French  and  English  Literature.  —  The  map  of  Europe 
shows  that  the  whole  southern  coast  of  England  faces  the 
whole  northern  coast  of  France,  and  they  are  near  one  an- 
other. From  Caesar's  time  onward  we  know  that  England 
was  always  more  or  less  under  the  influence  of  France.  For 
two  thousand  years  these  countries  have  sometimes  helped 
each  other,  sometimes  hindered,  the  relationship  being 
clearly  reflected  in  the  literature  of  both. 

In  1042  Edward  the  Confessor  was  on  the  English  throne, 

35 


36  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

and  he  had  a  kindly  feeling  for  Normandy,  the  land  in  which 
he  lived  during  boyhood.  High  positions  he  gave  to  French 
nobles  and  priests,  and  the  language  of  the  English  court  was 
French.  All  this,  however,  had  little  effect  upon  the  English 
people  as  a  whole,  though  it  accustomed  them  to  the  sounds 
of  a  foreign  language.  Gradually,  a  fashionable  mode  of 
speech  is  bound  to  affect  the  speech  of  the  people.  Thus 
in  time  the  Norman  conquest  broadened  the  thought,  en- 
larged the  vocabulary,  and  polished  the  diction  of  the  Eng- 
lish nation. 

Norman-English  Society.  —  All  the  literature  of  the  world 
is  social  in  origin.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  composed  by 
people  who  belong  to  a  community  of  some  sort.  Hence 
we  can  scarcely  appreciate  the  difference  between  Norman- 
English  literature  and  the  literature  of  to-day,  until  we 
are  familiar  with  the  society  wherein  the  former  was 
created.  Men  write  about  what  they  feel  or  think.  The 
Norman-English  writers  may  have  had  some  thoughts 
which  they  did  not  dare  express,  and  others  which  they  felt 
they  must  express. 

The  Feudal  System.  —  One  vital  feature  of  Norman- 
English  society  was  Feudalism.  It  existed  in  England  long 
before  the  Norman  conquest,  although  its  existence  did  not 
greatly  annoy  the  common  people.  Alfred,  for  instance, 
made  a  treaty  with  the  Danes,  whereby  as  his  vassals  the 
Danes  received  East  Anglia  and  other  lands.  A  vassal 
holds  land  so  long  as  he  satisfies  the  real  lord  or  landowner. 
A  vassal  renders  military  service  to  his  superior  and  receives 
protection  when  it  is  needed.  Thus  feudalism  is  a  social 
system  in  which  lands,  called  feuds,  are  in  the  hands  of  war- 
riors. After  the  conquest  in  1066  William  of  Normandy 
claimed  all  the  folkland,  or  public  land,  as  the  property  of 
the  crown.  All  other  land  was  given  by  him  to  Norman 
gentlemen  as  vassals  of  the  king. 


THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD  37 

The  Crusades.  —  One  of  the  causes  that  helped  to  modify 
the  feudal  system  was  the  series  of  religious  wars,  called  the 
Crusades,  carried  on  for  two  centuries  between  Christians  and 
Mohammedans.  Those  who  determined  to  set  out  for  the 
Holy  Land  wore  on  their  breast  the  figure  of  a  red  cross.  This 
is  why  they  were  called  Crusaders.  At  first  the  Christians 
demanded  only  free  admission  to  the  Holy  Sepulchre,  but 
afterward  the  contest  was  for  the  possession  of  Jerusalem, 
a  purpose  that  was  purely  sentimental  in  its  beginning. 

It  was  in  1095,  less  than  thirty  years  after  the  Norman 
Conquest,  that  the  first  of  the  seven  crusades  began.  Most 
European  countries  were  involved,  and  millions  of  men, 
women,  and  children  sacrificed  their  lives  for  the  sake  of  an 
ideal.  Many  estates  had  to  be  sold  to  merchants  in  exchange 
for  money  required  by  the  nobles  who  were  engaged  in  fight- 
ing in  the  East,  and  this  tended  to  weaken  the  feudal  system. 
Above  all,  the  travel  abroad  awoke  more  liberal  ways  of 
thinking,  and  thus  brought  a  new  spirit  into  the  literature 
of  England  and  other  countries. 

Chivalry.  —  The  French-speaking  people  played  the  chief 
part  in  the  crusades  and  in  the  institution  of  Chivalry.  To- 
day chivalry  implies  courteous  manners,  deference  to  women 
of  any  rank  or  age,  and  readiness  from  a  sense  of  fair  play 
to  protect  those  who  are  too  weak  to  defend  themselves 
against  injustice.  It  had  its  birth  in  the  feudal  mansion 
when  a  young  man  was  formally  admitted  to  the  rank  of 
warrior  and  bound  himself  to  his  feudal  superior  —  his  lord 
-  who  conferred  upon  him  the  arms  of  knighthood. 

It  was  during  the  crusades  that  chivalry  became  linked 
with  the  solemn  ceremonies  of  religion.  Loyalty  to  one's 
promise,  courtesy  even  toward  an  enemy,  gallantry  in  the 
protection  of  womanhood,  and  personal  courage  were  the 
principal  features  of  a  system  which  certainly  helped  to 
promote  refinement  and  a  sense  of  honor  among  all  gentle- 


38 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


men  worthy  of  the  name.  It  was  such  a  gentleman  that 
risked  his  life  in  behalf  of  Rebecca,  the  Jewess,  whom  Scott 
depicts  in  Ivanhoe.  For  centuries  knightly  heroes  and  their 
deeds  formed  the  subject  of  all  the  most  popular  works  of 
poetry  and  romance. 

The  Seaport  of  Tyre.  —  High  up  in  its  solitude,  pure  and 
lustrous  like  a  cloud  steeped  in  sunshine,  stands  Lebanon, 


FIG.  12.  — Seaport  of  Tyre. 

the  emblem  of  that  old  oriental  world  within  whose  shadow 
lies  the  site  of  Tyre,  by  the  eastern  waters  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea.  Many  a  giant  cedar  of  Lebanon  was  felled 
by  woodmen  of  Tyre  for  the  temple  of  King  Solomon.  The 
ruins  of  an  old  church,  some  tottering  walls  and  towers,  a 
white-domed  mosque,  a  few  fishermen's  houses  clinging  to 


THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD  39 

the  sea-washed  rock,  some  palm-trees  mourning,  as  it  were, 
over  bygone  splendor,  are  all  that  now  remain  of  a  mighty 
city  whose  " merchants  were  princes." 

A  Greek  Romance.  —  During  the  Norman-English  period 
Greek  influenced  the  literature  of  western  Europe  either 
through  Latin  culture  or  through  saints'  legends,  fables,  and 
romances  brought  back  by  travellers  and  traders.  A  metri- 
cal Greek  romance,  Apollonius  of  Tyre,  was  at  one  time  so 
popular  that  it  was  translated  into  most  of  the  languages  of 
Europe.  It  is  on  this  romance  that  the  Shakespearean  play 
of  Pericles,  Prince  of  Tyre,  is  founded. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  version,  of  which  only  a  fragment  has 
been  preserved,  was  made  from  Latin  about  the  year  1100. 
Like  the  Latin  version,  it  not  only  introduces  Christian  ideas, 
but  changes  the  plot  of  the  romance.  The  story  consists  of 
the  adventures  of  Apollonius,  a  Syrian  prince,  who  is  ship- 
wrecked not  far  from  a  great  city,  which  stands  near  the 
southern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean.  All  his  comrades  are 
lost.  The  hero  makes  his  way  to  the  city  gates,  wins  the 
favor  of  the  king,  and  finally  marries  the  king's  daughter. 

The  following  scene  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  style  of 
the  Saxon  version : 

The  King's  Daughter 

Then  suddenly  the  king's  young  daughter  entered  and 
kissed  her  father  and  those  about  him.  When  she  came  to 
Apollonius,  she  turned  toward  her  father  and  said :  "  Good 
king  and  dearest  father,  who  is  this  young  man  that  sitteth 
over  against  thee  in  so  honorable  a  place  with  a  countenance 
so  sorrowful?  I  know  not  why  he  sorroweth."  Then  said 
the  king:  " Daughter  dear,  the  young  man  has  been  ship- 
wrecked, and  he  has  pleased  me  best  of  all  in  the  games  to-day, 
therefore  I  invited  him  to  this  our  banquet.  I  know  neither 
who  he  is  nor  whence  he  is,  but  if  thou  wilt  know  who  he  is,  ask 
him,  for  it  is  proper  that  thou  know." 

Then  went  the  maiden  to  Apollonius,  and  with  hesitancy 


40 


ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 


said :  "Though  thou  be  silent  and  disheartened,  yet  I  perceive 
thy  nobility,  so  now  if  it  seem  not  burdensome  to  thee,  tell 
me  thy  name  and  relate  to  me  thy  misfortunes."  Then  said 
Apollonius :  "If  thou  needs  must  inquire  about  my  name,  I 
answer  that  I  lost  it  at  sea ;  if  thou  wilt  know  of  my  noble 
rank,  know  thou  that  it  was  lost  at  Tarsus/'  "  Tell  me  more 
precisely,"  said  the  maiden,  "  so  that  I  may  understand." 
Apollonius  then  related  to  her  all  his  misfortunes,  and  at  the 
close  of  his  narrative  tears  fell  from  his  eyes. 


FIG.   13.  —  Duel  between  Crusaders. 


Romances  of  Chivalry.  —  The  crusades  called  every  man 
who  had  real  red  blood  in  his  veins.  It  was  the  spirit  of  ad- 
venture that  put  people  in  the  mood  for  occasionally  for- 
getting the  monotony  of  daily  life  by  visiting  the  dreamland 


THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD  41 

of  imagination,  the  only  land  where  the  highest  literature 
has  its  unseen  beginning. 

During  the  Norman-English  period  three  great  cycles  of 
romance  began  to  flourish  in  Europe.  Those  cycles  were 
groups  of  stories  dealing  with  "  matter  of  France,"  "  matter 
of  Rome  "  and  all  the  ancient  world,  and  "  matter  of  Britain." 
The  romances  dealt  with  one  or  more  illustrious  heroes, 
chiefly  with  Charles  the  Great  of  France,  with  Alexander 
the  Great  and  other  characters  of  the  east,  or  with  the 
deeds  of  King  Arthur  and  his  knights.  These  were  the  three 
chief  groups,  but  popular  tales  came  in  from  all  countries, 
some  of  which  were  based  upon  recent  historical  events. 
Having  lived  in  Britain  in  the  sixth  century,  Arthur  became 
by  far  the  most  popular  figure  in  English  romance.  In- 
deed the  Arthurian  tale  of  chivalry  is  the  starting  point  of 
English  romantic  fiction. 

Geoffrey  of  Monmouth  (noo?-ii54).  —  Before  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth  died  in  1154,  he  could  scarcely  have  dreamed 
to  what  extent  his  History  of  the  Kings  of  Britain  would 
inspire  the  writers  of  Europe  for  centuries.  Though  he 
wrote  in  Latin,  the  work  of  this  Welsh  bishop  enters  so  fre- 
quently into  the  later  creations  of  English  literature  that  it 
cannot  be  passed  in  silence.  Through  his  imaginative 
sympathy  the  old  mythology  becomes  the  new  romance, 
blended  with  the  facts  of  history.  Based  upon  Keltic  poetry 
and  legend,  set  in  a  framework  of  fact,  Geoffrey's  history 
appeared  in  its  final  form  in  twelve  books,  whose  details 
had  been  largely  filled  in  by  the  author's  fancy.  The  lit- 
erary elements  that  give  it  charm  may  be  fatal  to  its  value 
as  history,  yet  we  cannot  but  feel  grateful  to  a  man  to 
whom  we  owe  the  stories  of  King  Arthur,  King  Lear, 
Cymbeline,  and  Gorboduc,  the  last  of  which  inspired  our 
first  English  tragedy.  Even  the  learned  Bede  mingled  his- 
tory with  legend,  and  it  is  only  in  modern  times  that  his- 


42  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

torians  have  tried  to  exclude  every  trace  of  fiction  from  their 
narratives. 

Development  of  the  Romance  of  Arthur.  —  Norman  or 
Breton  poets  like  Robert  Wace  were  quick  to  see  the  pos- 
sibilities of  a  work  like  that  of  Geoffrey,  which  was  the  first 
to  give  in  detail  the  story  of  Arthur's  victories  over  the  Saxon 
invaders.  It  is  in  Wace's  metrical  version  of  the  romance 
that  we  first  hear  of  the  Round  Table.  Subsequently  much 
was  added  that  was  chaste  and  beautiful.  The  entire  series 
of  tales  was  knit  into  a  literary  unity  by  introducing  the 
tradition  of  the  Holy  Grail,  the  cup  used  by  Jesus  at  the  Last 
Supper. 

Layamon's  Brut  (1200?).  —  In  the  twelfth  century  there 
was  a  great  revival  of  Kymric  or  Welsh  literature,  but  this 
is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  gifted  bards  who  wrote  in 
Welsh.  Turning  his  back  alike  upon  the  French  of  the  palace 
and  the  Latin  of  the  monastery,  a  Welsh  priest  named  Laya- 
mon  was  the  first,  among  writers  of  Arthurian  romance, 
to  make  use  of  the  English  language.  His  version,  which 
contains  over  30,000  lines,  is  called  the  Brut,  a  name  that 
he  borrowed  from  Wace's  poein.  Brut  was  supposed  to  be 
the  first  king  of  Britain,  a  great  grandson  of  ^Eneas  of  Troy, 
the  hero  of  Virgil's  epic. 

Layamon's  work,  written  about  the  year  1200,  is  an  adapta- 
tion of  Wace's  poem  or  some  later  French  poem  based  upon 
it,  and  he  doubled  its  length.  Where  did  he  obtain  the  extra 
material?  The  answer  given  by  recent  study  ascribes  it 
almost  entirely  to  Norman  interpretation  of  tales  from  the 
Kelts  of  Brittany.  For  the  first  time  we  hear  of  the  presence 
of  fairies  or  elves  at  Arthur's  birth,  and  we  also  read  that 
the  king  at  his  death  was  conveyed  by  them  in  a  magic  boat 
to  the  fairy  Queen  in  the  Isle  of  Avalon. 

King  Lear's  Three  Daughters.  —  Layamon's  work  is  not 
entirely  dull.  More  than  three  hundred  and  fifty  years 


THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD 


43 


before  Shakespeare  wrote  his  tragedy  called  King  Lear, 
Layamon  told  a  part  of  the  story  in  the  Brut.  This,  of 
course,  is  a  modern  version. 


Sixty  winters  had  King  Leir 

This  land  wholly  governed. 

The  king  had  three  daughters 

By  his  noble  queen. 

Not  any  son  had  he  — 

Therefore  he  was  sorry  — 

His  dignity  to  uphold, 

Only  these  three  daughters. 

The  eldest  was  called  Gornoille, 

The  second  Ragau, 

The  third  Cordoille. 

She  was  the  youngest  sister, 

In  face  f airest  of  all ; 

To  her  father  she  was  dear 

As  his  very  life. 


FIG.  14.  —  Cordoille  or  Cordelia. 


The  Castle  and  the  Monastery.  —  Dance  and  story  help 
to  pass  the  long  winter  evening,  and  in  the  leisure  hours  of 
summer  the  castle  courtyards  echo  with  the  noise  of  football, 
leaping,  wrestling,  and  similar  sports.  The  minstrel  sings 
to  the  accompaniment  of  his  tabor  or  guitar.  The  jester 
or  professional  fool  cracks  his  jokes  and  shakes  his  cap  and 
bells  to  amuse  the  baron  and  his  guests. 

It  is  not  far  from  the  castle  to  the  monastery,  whose  nail- 
studded  doors  of  oak  we  are  now  approaching.  We  enter 
the  arched  gateway,  pass  through  the  broad  quadrangle, 
and  finally  climb  up  a  narrow  winding  stair  to  a  chamber 
called  the  scriptorium,  or  writing  room.  Round  the  bare 
stone  walls  wooden  chests  are  ranged  for  preserving  precious 
manuscripts.  This  is  vellum  that  the  cowled  monk  is 
graciously  showing  us,  and  for  many  months  it  has  received 
his  writing  and  adornment.  In  brilliant  colors  he  has  traced 
the  fanciful  initial  letter  of  each  chapter,  filling  it  in  with 


ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 

black  ink.  Figures  of  men  and  angels,  birds  and  flowers, 
!-  and  leaves,  drawn  with  rare  skill  and  patience,  decorate 

ie  margin,  whose  richness  of  coloring  awakes  our  admiration. 

A  Norman-English  School.  —  For  their  services  to  litera- 
ture the  long-robed  monks  of  the  Middle  Ages  deserve  our 
gratitude.  Besides  their  evident  value  as  centres  of  literary 
:.  the  monasteries  were  ready  to  assist  those  in  distress, 
i  after  universities  were  established,  the  monasteries 
continued  to  be  seats  of  learning.  Look  at  the  pupils  sitting 
;  circular  row  around  the  schoolmaster  as  he  reads  a 
ial  lecture.  By  the  desk  are  seated  two  writers,  busy 
with  rolls  of  manuscript  like  that  which  the  teacher  holds 
in  hi;-',  hand.  Most  of  the  lads  in  that  class  are  destined  for 

e  of  the  learned  professions.  All  of  them  work  earnestly 
so  as  to  win  the  approval  of  their  teacher  and  their  own 
conscience. 

The  Ancren  Riwle  (1225?). —  The  Ancren  Riwle,  or  An- 
choresses' Rule,  is  a  prose  work  telling  about  the  rule  or 
.course  of  conduct  for  three  young  gentlewomen  with  their 
servants,  who  forsake  all  worldly  pleasures  and  devote  them- 
selves to  religion.  It  may  have  been  composed  about  the 
year  1225.  Whoever  is  the  author,  he  warns  against  the 
silliness  of  flirtation,  and  declares  that  he  has  no  faith  in 
dreams  or  in  witchcraft.  Probably  he  had  a  reason  for  ad- 
vising, silence  at  meals,  and  yet  he  does  not  favor  gloominess. 
These  anchoresses,  or  lady  hermits,  he  likens  to  "  birds  of 
heaven  that  sit  singing  merrily  among  the  green  boughs." 
In  simple  style,  enlivened  by  a  touch  of  humor,  this  treatise 
\  the  work  of  a  man  who  knows  men  as  well  as  books.  No 
better  English  prose  was  written  during  the  thirteenth 
century. 

The  Debate  as  a  Literary  Type.  —  The  Debate  in  verse 
is  not  peculiar  to  the  literature  of  Europe ;  in  rude  form  it  is 
familiar  to  some  of  the  primitive  or  hunting  tribes  in  different 


THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD  45 

parts  of  the  globe.  By  the  twelfth  century  the  Debate, 
which  was  simpler  than  the  Dialogue  in  verse,  was  recognized 
as  a  type  in  Latin  literature,  and  by  the  thirteenth  century 
it  was  well  known  in  France,  Italy,  and  Spain. 

These  mock  quarrels  or  debates  were  written  to  show  the 
superiority  of  a  certain  object  over  another.  For  instance, 
there  were  debates  or  dialogues  in  verse  between  Summer  and 
Winter,  Body  and  Soul,  Heart  and  Eye,  and  so  forth.  In 
France  and  Spain  the  debates  in  verse  became  so  popular 
that  in  some  cases  they  were  changed  into  folk-songs,  known 
and  admired  by  every  one.  In  Italy  the  minstrels  made  use 
of  the  debates  as  a  form  of  entertainment,  and  it  was  easy 
for  the  warm-blooded  Italians  to  transform  the  metrical 
debate  into  a  dramatic  recitation.  In  England  the  debate, 
simplified  by  nurse  or  mother,  in  one  or  two  instances  became 
a  nursery  rime. 

The  Owl  and  the  Nightingale  (1250?). — "Uncanny 
thing,"  said  the  nightingale  to  the  owl,  "fly  away.  My 
tongue  falters  when  you  are  near  to  me."  Composed  about 
1250,  The  Owl  and  the  Nightingale  is  a  debate  in  verse.  The 
nightingale  asserts  that  her  rival  is  not  very  good-looking 
and  that  he  shows  poor  taste  in  selecting  a  meal.  She  also 
claims  that  her  music  is  moral  and  elevating.  "  If  you  are 
so  great  a  teacher,"  replies  the  owl,  "  why  do  you  not  sing 
to  men  in  Ireland,  Norway,  and  Scotland  ?  " 

The  owl  is  a  bird  of  some  intelligence,  for  he  quotes  the 
proverbs  of  King  Alfred.  The  device  of  employing  learned 
allusions  is  borrowed  from  the  French  poets,  who  wished  to 
make  their  verses  as  witty  as  possible.  Nicholas  of  Guild- 
ford  is  said  to  have  written  this  poem  of  nearly  2000  lines. 

How  Lyrics  Began.  —  At  one  time  people  sang  because 
they  were  unusually  sad  or  happy.  There  were  no  big 
cities,  so  every  one  knew  every  one  else  in  his  clan  or  village. 
Long  ago  a  lyric,  or  song  of  feeling,  consisted  of  two  or  three 


46  ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 

words  chanted  over  and  over  again.  When  there  was  a  holi- 
day, every  person  danced  and  sang  at  the  same  time.  When 
dancing  began  to  go  out  of  fashion,  the  lyric  became  a  song 
of  emotion,  sung  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  lyre  or  some 

other  musical  instrument.  After 
a  time  the  people  began  to  do  as 
we  do.  We  still  sing  lyrics  like 
Auld  Lang  Syne,  but  most  poems 
are  not  now  written  for  singers. 

Many     choruses     used     to     be 
chanted    by    the     people     every- 

RoyalMS.         w}iere^    ye£    ^hey    were    no£    COnsid. 
FIG.   15.  —  Anglo-Norman  ,    .     '  i_  i_ 

Sword  Dance.  ered  important  enough  to  be  put 

into  writing.  Every  one  knew 

them,  so  what  was  the  use  of  recording  them  in  a  manu- 
script? New  songs  would  appear,  and  the  older  lyrics 
would  go  out  of  fashion,  till  at  last  they  were  forgotten 
altogether. 

Norman-English  Lyrics.  —  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  as  we 
have  noticed,  includes  religious  lyrics  like  Ccedmon's  Hymn 
and  the  Dream  of  the  Cross,  besides  about  a  dozen  secular 
lyrics  such  as  the  Elegy  of  Deor.  Under  Norman  influence 
new  feelings  and  motives  are  introduced  into  the  poetry 
of  England,  and  the  style  is  also  novel.  Only  a  few  lyrics 
have  survived,  and  they  may  not  be  the  finest,  though  we 
are  grateful  for  what  remains. 

Love-songs. — The  Norman-English  lyrics  deal  mainly  with 
love.  The  love-songs  generally  call  our  attention  to  spring 
or  summer,  when  winter's  chill  is  past  and  the  birds  begin 
to  warble  their  sweet  melodies.  Two  specimens  will  show 
the  style  of  an  English  song  six  or  seven  hundred  years  ago. 
The  first,  dating  from  the  latter  half  of  the  twelfth  century, 
looks  like  the  complaint  of  a  disappointed  lover.  The  old 
spelling  is  retained  wherever  it  does  not  hide  the  meaning. 


THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD  47 

Mirie  it  is  while  sumer  doth  last 

With  fowls'  song ; 
But  now  is  nigh  the  wind's  blast 

And  weather  strong. 
Ei,  ei,  what  this  nicht  is  long  ! 
And  I  with  very  much  wrong 
Sorrow  and  murne  and  fast. 

About  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  was  written 
the  best  known  of  those  old  songs,  examples  of  which  may 
be  found  in  France  as  well  as  in  England.  In  the  word- 
music  of  this  part-song  we  are  struck  by  the  beauty  of  the 
vowel  sound  u  =  oo,  which  echoes  through  almost  every  line 
of  the  poem.  This  is  a  feature  of  ancient  and  modern 
Gaelic  song,  and  may  be  heard  to  this  day  in  the  Western 
Isles  of  Scotland. 

The  Cuckoo  Song 

Sumer  is  icumen  in, 

Lhude  (loudly)  sing  cuccu ; 
Groweth  seed  and  bloweth  mead  (bloometh  meadow) 

And  springeth  the  wood  nu  (now) 

Sing  cuccu ! 
Bleateth  after  lamb  the  ewe, 

Loweth  after  calf  the  cu  (cow) ; 
Buck  doth  gambol,  steer  doth  amble ; 

Murie  (merry)  sing  cuccu. 

Cuccu,  cuccu, 

Wei  singest  thu  (thou),  cuccu, 
Nor  cease  thu  ever  nu. 

Sing  cuccu  nu  !    Sing  cuccu ! 
Sing  cuccu  !    Sing  cuccu  nu  ! 

Religious  Songs.  —  Few  lyrics  of  love  have  been  pre- 
served, as  compared  with  religious  songs.  One  comes  from 
Kildare,  Ireland,  written  on  an  Anglo-Irish  manuscript 
of  the  early  fourteenth  century.  Although  gospel  means 


48  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

good  news,  this  lyric  is  as  mournful  as  ,others  of  the  same 
class.  The  Anglo-Saxon  poets  resemble  the  poets  of  ancient 
Babylonia  in  being  burdened  with  a  sense  of  the  shortness 
of  human  life.  All  that  we  really  know  is  that  here  the 
infant  on  the  mother's  knee  is  lulled  to  rest  with  word- 
pictures  of  the  sorrow  that  overshadows  this  earth.  The 
poor  little  babe  is  beginning  a  journey  that  leads  to  the  mists 
of  death.  The  opening  words  of  the  first  of  six  stanzas 
have  no  more  meaning  than  the  Tra-la-la  of  a  modern 
song. 

An  Anglo-Irish  Lullaby 

Lollai,  lollai,  litil  child  ! 

Why  weepest  thou  so  sore  ? 
Needs  must  thou  wepe ; 

It  was  ordained  of  yore 
Ever  to  live  in  sorrow, 

And  sigh  and  mourne  evere, 
As  thine  elders  did  ere  this, 
While  they  aliving  were. 
Lollai,  lollai,  litil  child, 

Child,  loUai,  lullow ! 
Into  unknown  world 

Icommen  so  art  thou. 

Rime  in  English  Poetry.  —  The  Anglo-Saxon  style  of  verse 
was  bound  to  change  even  if  there  had  been  no  Norman 
Conquest.  Rime  began  to  be  preferred  to  alliteration  for 
two  reasons.  Week  after  week  for  centuries  the  people's 
taste  changed  through  hearing  the  Latin  hymns  in  the  church 
service,  and  during  the  Norman-English  period  the  graceful 
rimes  of  French  poetry  set  the  fashion  for  the  whole  of 
western  Europe.  The  Normans  had  been  teaching  English- 
men the  spirit  and  the  lyric  grace  of  romantic  poetry. 


THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD  49 


SUMMARY 

1.  France  and  England  are  so  near  that  each  has  inspired 
the  literature  of  the  other,  and  this  was  true  even  before  the 
Norman  Conquest. 

2.  Feudalism,  the  Crusades,  and  Chivalry  affected  each 
other  as  well  as  the  thought  and  the  writing  of  men. 

3.  Written  in  Anglo-Saxon  verse,  Apollonius  of  Tyre  is 
a  romance  that  came  from  the  continent  of  Europe,  where 
it  was  very  popular. 

4.  Romances  of  chivalry  deal  chiefly  with  adventures  in 
France,  in  Rome  and  the  ancient  world,  and  in  Britain.     The 
adventures  in  Britain  cluster  about  Arthur,  a  king  of  the 
Britons  defending  his  country  against  the  Anglo-Saxon  in- 
vaders and  others. 

5.  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  a  Welsh  bishop  who  wrote  a 
history  in  Latin,  first  made  known  to  Europe  the  stories  of 
King  Arthur,  King  Lear,  and  Cymbeline.     Tennyson  and 
others  made  use  of  the  Arthurian  tales,  while  Shakespeare 
brought  King  Lear  and  Cymbeline  into  drama. 

6.  It  is  in  the  French  poem  of  Robert  Wace  that  we  first 
find  the  Round  Table  of  Arthur  and  his  knights. 

7.  About  the  year  1200  Layamon,  a  Welsh  priest,  wrote 
a  long  poem  called  the  Brut,  which  was  partly  based  upon 
Wace's    poem.     He    introduces   fairies    into    the    romantic 
story  of  Arthur,  and  alludes  to  the  story  of  King  Lear  and 
his  three  daughters. 

8.  The  monasteries  encouraged  young  people  to  study 
even  after  the  universities  were  founded,  but  there  was  no 
room  in  them  for  lads  who  were  indolent. 

9.  In  simple  prose  the  Ancren  Riwle  was  prepared  about 
1225  for  three  young  women  who  had  no  taste  for  worldly 
pleasure. 

10.  People  could  sing  long  before  writing  was  invented. 


50  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

A  lyric  is  so  called  because  at  one  time  it  was  always  sung 
to  the  music  of  a  lyre  or  some  other  instrument.  To-day 
a  lyric  is  simply  a  poem  that  gives  utterance  to  the  feelings 
of  its  author,  and  finds  echo  in  the  heart  of  other  people. 

11.  Norman-English  lyrics  treat  chiefly  of  love  and  re- 
ligion. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  How  could  a  map  help  us  to  find  out  whether  France  or  Russia 
was  the  more  likely  to  exert  strong  influence  upon  English  literature  ? 

2.  Why  is  the  feudal  system  so  called?     In  what  way  did  the 
crusades  modify  that  system  ?     How  was  chivalry  related  to  feu- 
dalism as  well  as  the  crusades  ? 

3.  Outline  the  romance  called  Apollonius  of  Tyre.     To  which  of 
the  three  cycles  of  romance  does  it  belong  ?     To  which  cycle  does 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  history  seem   to  belong?     Name  any 
literary  characters  first  made  known  by  Geoffrey. 

4.  Explain   the   phrases   " Round  Table "   and   "Holy   Grail." 
What  new  feature  did  the  poet  Layamon  add  to  the  romantic  story 
of  King  Arthur  ? 

5.  Point  out  some  of  the  differences  between  life  in  a  Norman- 
English  castle  and  in  a  monastery. 

6.  When  a  poem  reveals  feeling  rather  than  a  story,  to  what  class 
of  poetry  does  it  belong?     What  are  the  chief  topics  found  in 
Norman-English  song  ?    Which  of  the  specimens  do  you  like  best  ? 
Why? 

ADDITIONAL  AUTHORS  WITH   CHIEF  WORKS 

Walter  Map  (1137?-1200),  On  Courtly  Trifles  (Latin) ;  Gerald  of 
Wales  (1147?-1217?),  Invasion  of  Ireland  (Latin);  Orm  (1200?), 
Ormulum  (Work  of  Orm);  Thomas  of  Erceldoune  (died  1299?), 
Tristram;  Robert  of  Gloucester  (1260?-!  300?),  Chronicle; 
Robert  Manning  (1260?-! 340?),  Handlyng  Synne. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

a.   For  Classes 

E.  K.  Chambers  and  F.  Sidgwick,  Early  English  Lyrics,  Lond. 
(Bullen). 
G.  Z.  Gray,  The  Children's  Crusade,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $1.50. 


THE  NORMAN-ENGLISH  PERIOD  51 

P.  W.  Joyce,  Old  Celtic  Romances,  N.  Y.  (Longmans),  $1.25. 

J.  M.  Manly,  English  Prose,  Bost.  (Ginn),  $1.50.  From  1137  to 
1890. 

J.  M.  Manly,  English  Poetry,  Bost.  (Ginn),  $1.50.  From  1170  to 
1892. 

b.   For  Teachers  and  Others 

R.  Garnett  and  E.  Gosse,  English  Literature:  Illus.,  N.  Y.  (Mac- 
millan),  4  vols.,  $20  in  sets  only.  From  the  beginning  to  Tenny- 
son. 

W.  P.  Ker,  Epic  and  Romance,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.50. 

H.  Maynadier,  The  Arthur  of  the  English  Poets,  Bost.  (Houghton), 
$1.50. 

L.  A.  Paton,  Arthurian  Tales  and  Chronicles,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $.35. 

A.  T.  Quiller-Couch,  Oxford  Book  of  English  Verse,  N.  Y.  (Oxford 
Press),  $1.90.  From  1250  to  1900. 

E.  Renan,  Poetry  of  the  Celtic  Races,  N.  Y.  (Simmons),  $.40. 

J.  Rhys,  Studies  in  the  Arthurian  Legend,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press), 
$3.25. 

W.  H.  Schofield,  English  Literature  from  the  Norman  Conqwst  to 
Chaucer,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.50. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  CHAUCER  PERIOD 

1300-1400 

LET  us  turn  back  the  hands  of  the  clock  of  Time,  and  live 
for  a  little  while  in  the  fourteenth  century,  the  century  whose 
highest  work  of  genius  is  Dante's  Commedia,  which  was  com- 
posed in  Italy.  It  is  a  balmy  morning  in  May,  and  we  are  in 
southern  England,  rambling  among  the  Malvern  Hills  in 
Worcestershire.  There  is  the  shepherd  of  the  hills.  As  he  re- 
clines by  the  bank  of  a  stream,  listening  to  its  soothing  ripple, 
he  grows  drowsy  and  falls  asleep.  In  a  dream  he  perceives 
a  tower  on  the  crest  of  a  hill,  and  in  the  valley  beneath  is  a 
dark  dungeon  surrounded  by  deep  ditches.  Between  the 
tower  and  the  dungeon  is  "  a  faire  field  ful  of  folke."  All 
sorts  of  people  are  there  at  work  or  play  —  beggars  and 
fcJishops,  bakers  and  butchers,  masons  and  miners,  poor  men 
and  rich. 

The  Lady  of  the  Dream.  —  Who  is  this  dreaming  shepherd 
of  the  hills  ?  He  is  really  neither  a  shepherd  nor  a  hermit, 
but  an  English  poet.  His  dream  is  a  puzzle  to  him  until 
a  winsome  lady,  whose  name  is  Holy  Church,  makes  every- 
thing clear. 

A  loveli  ladi  of  lere  (face),  in  lynnen  yclothed, 
Come  down  fram  a  castel  and  called  me  faire, 
And  seide,  "  Sone,  slepest  thou,  seest  thou  this  people, 
How  bisi  thei  be  abouten  the  mase  (throng). 
The  most  part  of  this  people  that  passeth  on  this  erthe, 
Have  thei  (if  they  have)  worschip  (honor)  in  this  worlde,  thei  wish 
no  better; 

52 


THE  CHAUCER   PERIOD  53 

Of  other  hevene  than  here,  holde  thei  no  tale  (account)." 

I  was  feared  of  her  face  though  she  faire  were, 

And  seide,  "  Mercy,  Madame,  what  is  this  to  mene?  "' 

Meaning  of  the  Dream.  —  She  explains  that  the  tower  is 
the  abode  of  Truth,  whereas  the  dungeon  is  the  Castle  of 
Care,  the  abode  of  Wrong.  The  field  is  the  world. 
Wrong  is  the  father  of  Falsehood,  whom  the  king  vows  to 
punish.  Gradually  the  dreamer  sees  that  each  man  or 
woman  represents  some  vice  or  fault.  If  a  man  is  too  proud 
of  his  rank  in  life,  he  is  called  Pride  ;  if  fond  of  money,  he  is 
called  Avarice.  The  poet  believes  that  his  dream  is  true, 
because  the  people  of  the  dream  act  like  people  whom  he 
sees  in  everyday  life. 

The  Hero  of  the  Dream.  —  At  first  the  hero  is  simply  an 
upright  Christian  man,  though  in  later  dreams  he  is  repre- 
sented as  the  Savior  in  disguise.  In  one  of  the  poet's  dreams 


harivian  A/.S. 
FIG.   16.  —  Plowing  and  Sowing. 

some  of  the  people  grow  tired  of  their  way  of  living,  and  they 
consult  a  man  of  experience.  This  man  tells  them  that  he 
has  been  in  Babylonia,  and  Bethlehem,  and  Armenia,  but 
never  has  he  heard  of  a  saint  called  Truth.  Thereupon  a 
plowman  declares  that  he  knows  Truth  very  well;  indeed 
he  has  been  in  his  service  for  fifty  winters.  The  speaker  is 
Piers  the  Plowman,  after  whom  the  poem  is  named.  The 


54  ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 

poet  thus  brings  out  the  fact  that  any  one  with  a  high  sense 
of  duty,  however  lowly  be  his  station  in  life,  may  be  the  friend 
of  Truth.  During  the  last  of  the  dreams  Righteousness  and 
Peace  kiss  each  other.  For  the  last  time  the  dreamer  awakes, 
and  with  wife  and  daughter  he  creeps  to  the  Cross. 

William  Langland  (1332  ?-i4oo).  —  It  has  been  urged  that 
Piers  Plowman  is  beyond  doubt  the  work  of  several  authors, 
but  as  a  matter  of  convenience  we  shall  glance  merely  at  one 
author.  Piers  Plowman  is  usually  supposed  to  have  been 
written  in  part  by  William  Langland,  who  may  have  been 
born  in  Shropshire  about  the  year  1332,  eleven  years  after  the 
death  of  Dante  at  Ravenna  in  Italy.  We  do  not  know  when 
Langland  went  to  London,  but  he  appears  to  have  spent 
most  of  his  time  there  until  his  death  in  1400.  He  was  a  man 
of  education,  well  versed  in  Latin  and  in  French.  He  was 
no  spurious  patriot.  The  useless  wars  with  France  had  led 
to  much  suffering  among  the  working  classes  of  England, 
and  the  poet  had  the  good  sense  and  the  courage  to  advocate 
national  peace. 

Langland  was  but  a  tall  youth  of  sixteen  or  seventeen 
when  a  disease  called  Black  Death,  entering  Europe  from 
Asia  or  Africa,  swept  through  Italy  and  France.  When  it 
crossed  to  England,  about  one-half  of  the  entire  population 
is  said  to  have  perished.  This  caused  a  scarcity  of  labor, 
and  the  laborers  began  to  demand  high  wages.  The  riots 
that  broke  out  were  suppressed  with  severity.  These  were 
some  of  the  social  conditions  that  touched  the  mind  and 
heart  of  the  author  or  authors,  whose  feelings  are  voiced  in 
Piers  Plowman.  Sometimes  the  poem  is  bitter,  at  all  times 
it  is  democratic  in  its  sympathies,  but  it  is  no  advocate  of 
revolution  in  either  church  or  state.  All  that  is  sought  is  the 
betterment  of  social  conditions. 

Allegories  in  Verse.  —  An  allegory  may  be  briefly  defined 
as  a  narrative  whose  real  meaning  lies  under  the  surface. 


THE  CHAUCER   PERIOD  55 

Unlike  the  fable,  it  does  not  introduce  animals  that  have 
the  gift  of  intelligible  speech,  and  it  is  longer  than  a  parable. 
In  all  the  leading  countries  of  Europe  the  allegory  was  a 
fashionable  literary  type  long  before  the  fourteenth  century. 
After  the  French  Romance  of  the  Rose  had  achieved  popu- 
larity, the  union  of  dream  and  allegory  became  customary 
everywhere.  In  many  respects  Piers  Plowman  is  strictly 
original,  yet  it  is  steeped  in  the  same  symbolism  that  we  find 
in  the  literature  of  western  Europe,  notably  in  France,  Italy, 
and  Spain. 

Melodies  Unheard.  —  All  of  us  recognize  the  suggestive 
lines  from  Keats's  Ode  on  a  Grecian  Urn,  and  the  more  we 
think  of  them  the  more  we  are  convinced  that  mere  words 
can  never  fully  express  the  deepest  longings  of  the  human 
spirit. 

Heard  melodies  are  sweet,  but  those  unheard 
Are  sweeter ;  therefore,  ye  soft  pipes,  play  on ; 

Not  to  the  sensual  ear,  but,  more  endear'd, 
Pipe  to  the  spirit.  .  .  . 

Music  may  utter  what  words  cannot,  but  even  music 
fails  to  reveal  all  the  possibilities  of  our  nature.  Some  of 
the  divinest  utterances  of  music  have  never  been  heard 
except  with  the  inner  ear  of  the  soul.  The  loftiest  achieve- 
ments of  poetry,  of  fine  art,  are  no  more  than  gropings  after 
the  ideal,  gropings  after  the  noblest  things  of  which  our  mind 
can  conceive.  Their  greatness  is  commensurate  with  their 
power  to  knit  mankind  into  a  social  unity. 

Pearl  (1350?).  —  The  words  of  Keats  may  help  us  to  see 
with  our  own  eyes  a  fine  literary  gem,  fashioned  about  the 
year  1350  by  an  unknown  hand.  It  is  the  month  of  August. 
An  innocent  child  sleeps  under  one  of  the  many  mounds  in 
a  country  churchyard.  Under  the  tree-shadows  the  lush 
grass  is  dotted  with  flowers  that  fill  the  air  with  fragrance. 
Not  far  distant  are  the  reapers  at  work  with  their  keen  hooks. 


56  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Here  stands  her  father  —  the  mother  is  dead.  To  him  the 
little  daughter  is  a  rare  pearl  that  has  fallen  among  the  grass 
blades  into  the  darkness  below.  Silence  is  everywhere,  yet 
the  silence  begins  to  croon  a  lament  sweeter  than  any  he  had 
ever  heard.  In  a  swoon  the  father  falls  upon  the  mound  under 
which  his  precious  pearl  is  resting. 

As  he  lies  prostrate,  his  spirit  wanders  toward  a  forest 
whose  leaves  have  the  lustre  of  silver,  while  birds  of  beauty 
sing  more  joyously  than  all  the  minstrels  of  earth.  He  comes 
to  a  clear  river  whose  channel  is  speckled  with  pebbles  of 
emerald  and  sapphire.  Beyond  the  limpid  water  rise  crystal 
cliffs  so  enticing  that  the  father  is  eager  to  cross  and  climb 
the  heights.  He  dares  not ;  the  river  is  wide  and  deep,  so 
deep,  and  not  a  ford  can  he  discover.  Suddenly  on  the 
further  shore  he  observes  a  graceful  little  maid  who  is  no 
stranger  - 

Well  known  long  ere  I  saw  her  there. 

Qualities  of  the  Elegy.  —  Pearl l  occurs  in  a  manuscript 
with  three  other  poems  —  Cleanness,  with  its  great  whale 
story,  Patience,  with  its  lively  tale  of  the  exit  from  Noah's 
ark,  and  Gawayne  and  the  Green  Knight.  Pearl,  like  Piers 
Plowman,  is  written  in  alliterative  verse,  but  neither  poem 
follows  the  Anglo-Saxon  models  with  strictness. 

Pearl,  another  name  for  Margaret,  is  an  allegory  contain- 
ing one  hundred  and  one  stanzas,  each  of  twelve  lines,  with 
four  beats  or  accents  to  the  line.  Like  Poe's  Raven  it  sets 
forth  what  has  often  been  called  the  luxury  of  grief,  the 
pleasure  linked  with  the  reminiscence  of  bygone  happiness. 
It  is  Tennyson  who  characterizes  the  poem  as  "  True  Pearl 
of  our  poetic  prime/'  and  in  truth  the  unknown  poet  has 

1  Excellent  renderings  into  modern  English  have  been  published 
by  S.  Weir  Mitchell  and  by  Messrs.  Israel  Gollancz  and  G.  G. 
Coulton. 


THE  CHAUCER   PERIOD 


57 


daintily  portrayed  the  magic  that  lies  in  a  sorrow  which  is 
not  without  hope. 

John  Barbour  (i32o?-i3Q5).  —  In  1357  John  Barbour  was 
Archdeacon  of  Aberdeen,  a  Scottish  seaport  whose  streets 
so  often  in  the  olden  times  rang  with  the  clash  of  warlike 
arms.  Born  about  1320,  Barbour  was  trained  for  the  church, 
and  his  wonderful  energy 
showed  that  he  had  good 
red  blood  in  his  veins. 
With  letters  of  safe- 
conduct  from  Edward 
III,  king  of  England,  he 
on  several  occasions  rode 
hundreds  of  miles  south- 
ward, indifferent  to 
highwaymen  and  other 
dangers,  so  as  to  study 
at  Oxford  and  later  at 
Paris.  His  masterpiece, 
The  Bruce,  was  finished 
in  1375,  twenty  years 
before  his  death.  This 
historical  poem  recounts  the  thrilling  story  of  Robert  Bruce, 
king  of  the  Scots,  including  dramatic  incidents  during  the 
battle  of  Bannockburn  in  1314  when  Bruce's  struggles  were 
crowned  with  success. 

The  flight  of  time  so  staggers  our  imagination  that  it  is 
not  easy  to  realize  that  men  could  smile  or  laugh  five  hun- 
dred years  ago.  Barbour's  Bruce  reveals  humor  as  well  as 
pathos.  The  irony  in  the  following  lines  looks  rather 
modern.  After  his  famous  passage  in  praise  of  Freedom, 
the  poet  slyly  says : 

Ye  may  weile  see,  though  nane  yow  tell, 
How  hard  a  thing  that  thraldome  is. 


FIG.   17.  —  Aberdeen  Cathedral. 


58 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


For  men  may  weile  se,  that  ar  wys  (wise), 
That  wedding  is  the  hardest  band 
That  ony  man  may  tak  on  hand. 

In  constant  danger  of  captivity  or  death,  Bruce  and  his 
small  band  of  comrades  are  pursued  by  many  enemies.  The 
king  resolves  to  send  the  queen  and  her  ladies  to  the  royal 
castle  of  Kildrummy  in  Aberdeenshire  for  safety.  Some  will 
never  meet  again.  This  is  how  the  poet  depicts  the  farewell 
or  '  leve-takyng  ' : 

The  queyne  and  all  hyr  cumpany 

Leap  on  thair  hors  and  forth  thai  fare. 

Men  mycht  haiff  sene,  quha  (who)  had  bene  thar, 

At  leve-takyng  the  ladyis  gret  (sob), 

And  mak  thar  face  with  teris  wet : 

And  knychtis  for  thar  luvis  sake 

Baith  sigh  and  wep  and  murnyng  mak. 

Thai  kyssyt  thair  luvis  at  thair  partyng. 

The  poet  is  patriotic  enough, 
but  he  has  no  malice.  He  has 
the  courage  to  be  just  to  his 
country's  foes.  In  The  Bruce 
the  Scottish  poet  praises  the 
splendid  qualities  of  the  English 
leaders.  No  one  can  read  with- 
out a  thrill  the  good-by  of  Sir 
Giles  de  Argentine  to  Edward  II, 
who  is  about  to  retreat  from  the 
field  of  battle. 

Barbour,  a  contemporary  of 
Langland  and  Chaucer,  does  not 
deal  with  the  romances  that  had 
been  told  again  and  again  all  over  Europe.  Choosing  as 
his  hero  a  real  monarch  whom  his  own  father  had  probably 
beheld,  he  makes  use  of  the  material  in  which  he  is  most 


FIG.   18.  —  Robert  Bruce. 


THE  CHAUCER  PERIOD  59 

interested.  Under  Harbour's  guidance  we  see  Bruce  wan- 
dering as  a  fugitive  among  the  purple  heather  with  blood- 
hounds on  his  trail,  or  tossing  in  a  frail  skiff  as  he  crosses 
the  stormy  waters.  Bruce  was  by  no  means  a  perfect  man, 
yet  we  can  scarcely  fail  to  admire  his  courtesy  and  kind- 
ness, his  sagacity  and  valor,  as  well  as  the  loyalty  of  the 
friends  who  share  his  many  hairbreadth  escapes.  At  Ban- 
nockburn  we  look  upon  the  manly  English  knights  and 
archers  pitted  against  the  Highland  swordsmen  and  the 
Lowland  spearmen,  while  we  listen  reverently  to  the  friars 
praying  for  those  who  will  never  again  caress  mother  or 
sister,  wife  or  daughter.  Scott  was  not  the  only  poet  who 
was  inspired  by  The  Bruce,  a  poem  which,  in  spite  of  its 
12,500  lines,  remains  one  of  the  few  medieval  works  that  may 
still'be  read  with  pleasure. 

Position  of  Prose.  —  The  prose  of  the  fourteenth  century 
is  of  much  less  consequence  than  the  poetry,  and  this  is 
true  not  only  of  England  but  of  Europe  as  a  whole.  English 
poetry  was  acquiring  greater  ease  and  grace  through  French 
influence,  while  English  prose  still  depended  in  some  measure 
upon  Latin  models,  for  Latin  was  the  chief  vehicle  of  science 
and  religion.  Indeed  Wyclif  and  Mandeville  are  the  only 
two  writers  that  attained  any  distinction  in  English  prose. 

John  Wyclif  (13247-1384).  —  Knowledge  of  a  writer's 
career  and  character  is  of  use  only  so  far  as  it  helps  us  to 
understand  his  literary  work.  At  the  village  of  Hipswell  in 
Yorkshire  John  Wyclif  was  born  about  the  year  1324.  For 
a  time  he  was  Master  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  but  he  was 
not  content  to  live  among  books  and  students.  Wyclif, 
like  Dante,  lived  in  an  age  when  there  was  often  a  close 
connection  between  politics  and  literature.  He  was  a  natural 
fighter,  finding  pleasure  in  fiery  discussions  concerning  church 
and  state. 

The  sole  reason  for  introducing  him  into  a  history  of  English 


60 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


literature  is  that  he  planned  a  translation  of  the  Bible  from 
Latin  into  English.  Possibly  influenced  by  the  appearance 
of  Piers  Plowman,  Wyclif  began  to  use  English  rather  than 
Latin  in  his  sermons  and  pamphlets  so  as  to  induce  the  people 
to  take  more  interest  in  church  affairs.  It  was  the  same 


British  Museum 


FIG.   19.  —  Specimen  of  Wyclif's  Bible. 


motive  that  led  him  to  arrange  for  a  translation  of  the 
Scriptures.  Probably  the  version  of  the  New  Testament 
was  his  own  work,  and  it  was  apparently  completed  shortly 
before  his  death  in  1384.  Although  too  often  the  transla- 
tion follows  Latin  rather  than  English  models,  yet  it  en- 
couraged others  to  improve  upon  Wyclif's  pioneer  effort. 


THE  CHAUCER   PERIOD 


61 


This  is  an  extract  from  Wyclif '  s  work  : 

And  a  greet  storme  of  wynd  is  maad,  and  sente  wawis  into  the 
boot  (boat),  so  that  the  boot  was  ful.  And  he  was  in  the 
hyndir  part  of  the 
boot,  slepynge  on  a 
pilewe.  And  -thei 
reysen  hym,  and 
seien  (say)  to  hym, 
"  Maister,  perteneth 
it  nat  to  thee  that  we 
perishen  ?  "  And  he 
rysynge  up,  manas- 
side  to  (menaced 
or  threatened)  the 
wynd,  and  seide  to 
the  see,  "  Be  stille, 
wexe  doumb  (wax 
dumb)." 


Harleian  MS.,  British  Museum 
FIG.  20.  —  Ship  in  Wyclif's  Time. 


Sir    John     Mande- 
ville      (i3oo?-i37i?). 

"  Wherefore  I  pray  to  all  the  readers  and  hearers  of  this 
book,  if  it  please  them,  that  they  would  pray  to  God  for  me, 
and  I  shall  pray  for  them." 

That  is  the  closing  sentence  in  a  quaint  book  which  professes 
to  have  been  written  in  the  year  1356.  Sir  John  Mandeville's 
Voyage  and  Travel,  the  typical  European  book  of  travel  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  was  so  popular  that  it  was  translated  into 
Danish,  Dutch,  and  other  languages  of  Europe.  If  the  author 
has  not  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  then  he  believes  all  sorts  of 
stories  as  readily  as  a  child.  For  instance,  he  tells  of  people 
with  ears  that  hang  down  to  their  knees.  Again  he  meets 
people  who  have  one  foot  so  big  that  "  it  will  cover  and 
oumbre  all  the  body  "  from  the  rays  of  the  sun.  In  English 
there  is  nothing  so  entertaining  as  this,  until  we  come  to 
Swift's  Gulliver's  Travels.  On  the  other  hand,  Mandeville 


62 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


at  times  seems  to  be  trying  to  give  instruction  in  the  guise  of 
romance.  Even  as  late  as  the  time  of  Columbus  most 
scientists  did  not  believe  that  the  earth  was  round,  whereas 

this  writer  definitely  states 
that  a  ship  can  sail  round 
the  world. 

This  book  of  alleged 
travels  continues  to  puzzle 
the  critics.  It  professes  to 
be  a  guide  to  pilgrims  about 
to  visit  the  Holy  Land,  but 
it  really  contains  more 
marvels  than  any  writer  had 
ever  collected  into  a  single 
volume.  With  the  help  of 
the  writings  of  Marco  Polo 
and  others  the  author  made 


FIG.  21.- 


From  pen  and  ink  sketch 
-  "  Ears  down  to  the  knees." 


some  surprising  journeys, 
and  they  are  related  with  the  simplicity  and  seriousness  of 
Defoe's  Robinson  Crusoe.  The  writer  of  the  Voyage  and 
Travel  declares  that  he  was  born  at  St.  Alban's,  England, 
and  that  from  1322  he  spent  over  thirty  years  in  Asia  and 
Africa.  It  has  been  doubted  whether  any  such  person  as 
Sir  John  Mandeville  ever  lived,  but  whoever  the  author  was, 
he  deserves  credit  for  composing  the  earliest  English  prose 
work  that  displays  ease  and  independence  of  style. 


GEOFFREY  CHAUCER  (1340?-1400) 

The  Use  of  Pictures.  —  If  we  look  in  this  book  at  the  pic- 
tures of  persons  or  places,  we  do  so  because  they  help  us  to 
understand  what  we  may  be  reading,  and  the  better  we  under- 
stand what  we  read,  the  better  shall  we  know  how  to  live. 
Such  pictures  we  call  illustrations  because  they  throw  light 


THE  CHAUCER  PERIOD 


63 


upon  the  men  or  women,  a  study  of  whose  character  may  de- 
velop our  own.  In  other  words,  portraits  or  pictures  of  any 
kind,  if  they  are  reliable,  make  an  appeal  to  reason  as  well  as 
to  imagination.  We  not  only  enjoy  them,  but  may  profit 
by  them  in  studying  life  through  literature. 

Chaucer's  Portrait.  —  Let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  the 
picture  of  Chaucer.  The  straight  Greek  nose,  harmonizing 
with  the  regular  features, 
indicates  a  love  of  order 
and  refinement,  a  taste 
for  what  is  beautiful,  a 
dislike  of  quarrels.  Sen- 
sitiveness to  impressions 
is  suggested  by  the  fine 
delicate  eyebrow.  The 
bright  expressive  eyes 
look  out  from  under  a 
well-developed  broad 
forehead.  The  promi- 
nent lower  brow  belongs 
to  a  man  who  has  the 
power  of  gathering 
knowledge  by  observa- 
tion. The  lips  are  full. 
They  indicate  a  man  of  warm  feeling,  a  man  who  enjoys  life, 
though  his  judgment  usually  controls  his  emotions.  As  a 
whole  the  oval  face  conveys  the  idea  of  refinement,  thought- 
fulness,  shrewdness,  and  sympathy  or  toleration. 

Sketch  of  his  Life.  —  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  son  of  a  London 
merchant,  was  born  about  1340.  In  1357  the  lad  was  at 
service  in  the  household  of  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Lionel,  the 
third  son  of  Edward  III.  Two  years  later  he  accompanied 
the  expedition  of  Edward  against  France.  He  was  captured 
by  the  French,  who  released  him  after  the  king  had  sent  gold 


From  Occleve's  Miniature.     Harleian  MS. 
FIG.  22.  —  Geoffrey  Chaucer. 


64  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

to  purchase  his  freedom.  The  poet  must  have  been  a  genial 
man  of  tact  and  discretion,  for  he  won  favor  from  three  kings 
-Edward  III,  Richard  II,  and  Henry  IV.  For  a  time  he 
acted  as  royal  valet  or  gentleman-in-waiting,  then  he  became 
an  esquire,  and  later  was  made  Comptroller  of  Customs. 
On  several  occasions  Chaucer  was  employed  as  an  envoy 
or  special  representative  of  the  English  monarch,  and  in 
this  way  he  had  an  opportunity  to  extend  his  knowledge  of 
the  world.  In  1378,  for  example,  the  poet  was  dispatched 
with  another  gentleman  to  Italy,  where  he  met  Sir  John 
Hawkwood,  the  free-lance  or  soldier  of  fortune,  chief  of  the 
famous  White  Company  of  English  spears.  Eight  years 
later  Chaucer  had  attained  the  dignity  of  membership  in 
Parliament. 

Of  his  wife  Philippa  we  know  very  little,  but  we  do  know 
that  Chaucer  wrote  one  of  his  prose  works,  the  Treatise  on  the 
Astrolabe,  for  the  instruction  of  their  little  son  Lewis.  Like 
most  poets  he  never  learned  how  to  save  money.  Partly 
by  reason  of  his  generous  instincts,  and  partly  because 
he  mingled  much  with  the  aristocracy,  the  poet  was  tempted 
to  spend  more  than  he  could  afford.  More  than  once  his 
creditors  annoyed  him.  He  died  in  1400  and  he  rests  in 
Westminster  Abbey. 

Unity  of  Europe.  —  France  is  not  England,  yet  each  is 
European.  We  can  scarcely  understand  the  growth  of 
English  literature  either  in  thought  or  in  style,  if  we  forget 
that  England  is  a  part  of  Europe.  During  the  fourteenth 
century  Italy  wrested  the  leadership  in  literature  from  France, 
for  no  country  had  given  birth  to  a  rival  of  Dante,  and  no 
country  had  three  men  of  letters  like  Dante,  Petrarca  or 
Petrarch,  and  Boccaccio.  The  five  points  of  a  star  represent 
the  literary  men  of  the  century.  Three  have  already  been 
named ;  the  two  others  are  Froissart  of  France  and  Chaucer 
of  England. 


THE   CHAUCER   PERIOD  65 

Chaucer's  Growth.  —  Seldom  do  we  know  the  date  of 
Chaucer's  poems,  yet  the  development  of  his  power  may  be 
traced  in  a  general  way.  For  the  sake  of  convenience  it  is 
customary  to  divide  his  literary  career  into  three  periods,  — 
French,  Italian,  and  English,  —  although,  of  course,  he  was 
"always  reading  those  Latin  authors  that  he  could  procure. 

To  the  early  or  French  period  belong  poems  such  as  The 
Romaunt  (Romance)  of  the  Rose,  based  upon  its  namesake, 
the  great  allegory  of  love;  ABC  (1366?),  a  metrical  prayer 
to  the  Virgin  Mary,  each  stanza  beginning  with  each  suc- 
cessive letter  of  the  alphabet ;  The  Complaint  unto  Pity 
(1366?),  wherein  the  poet  seeks  Pity  and  finds  her  dead; 
and  The  Book  of  the  Duchess  (1369-1370). 

To  the  middle  or  Italian  period  belong  the  Complaint  of 
Mars  (1380),  dealing  with  Mars  and  Venus;  Parliament  of 
Fowls  (1382?),  depicting  a  meeting  of  the  Royal  Eagle  — 
Richard  II  —  and  other  so-called  fowls  or  birds ;  Troilus 
and  Cressida  (1382?),  whose  leading  characters  are  supposed 
to  be  Trojan  lovers  at  the  time  set  forth  in  Homer's  Iliad; 
the  Howe  of  Fame  (1383-1384),  written  about  ten  years 
later  than  Barbour's  Bruce  and  in  the  same  rimed  verse; 
and  the  Legend  of  Good  Women  (1385),  telling  of  ten  noted 
women,  including  Cleopatra  of  Egypt. 

The  third  or  English  period  comprises  The  Canterbury  tales. 

His  Experiments.  —  Really  good  poets  have  never  been 
common,  yet  every  one  may  learn  to  enjoy  what  some  of  the 
poets  have  written.  We  acquire  a  taste  for  poetry  by  reading 
it,  especially  when  we  are  alone  in  the  quietness  of  evening, 
and  can  read  so  slowly  that  we  enter  into  the  spirit  of  it. 
Most  of  us  at  first  read  a  poem  as  a  task.  If  we  persevere 
in  reading  verses  that  we  understand,  we  learn  to  read 
poetry  as  readily  as  prose.  If  we  still  persevere,  we  begin 
to  find  in  certain  poems  a  pleasure  such  as  we  have  never 
found  in  the  choicest  prose. 


66  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

When  Chaucer  began  to  try  to  write  verse,  he  did  as  all 
other  poets  have  done  ;  he  endeavored  to  imitate  those  poets 
that  he  liked  best.  When  experience  gave  him  skill  and  self- 
confidence,  he  expressed  his  own  thoughts  and  feelings  more 
and  more  attractively.  No  doubt  he  threw  many  of  his 
earliest  efforts  into  the  fire,  but  still  he  was  acquiring  valuable 
experience  even  by  his  mistakes.  The  great  poets  seemed  to 
be  able  to  write  like  gods,  and  Chaucer's  first  experiments 
appeared  so  feeble  that  he  felt  rather  ashamed  of  them.  He 
did  not  lose  heart,  however.  He  was  fond  of  books.  He  had 
learned  to  read  French  with  such  ease  that  he  admired  the 
delightful  manner  in  which  the  poets  of  France  could  tell 
what  they  thought  and  felt. 

The  Book  of  the  Duchess.  —  Some  of  Chaucer's  earlier 
poems  have  been  preserved,  the  best  of  which  is  The  Book 
of  the  Duchess.  It  is  written  in  honor  of  Blanche,  daughter 
of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  and  wife  of  Chaucer's  life-long 
friend,  John  of  Gaunt.  She  died  in  1369,  so  the  poem  was 
probably  written  soon  afterward.  It  is  based  mainly  upon 
the  Roman  de  la  Rose  and  another  French  poem  not  so  well 
known.  The  Romance  of  the  Rose,  as  we  call  it  in  English, 
is  an  allegory  written  in  the  form  of  a  dream. 

Chaucer's  work  also  opens  with  a  dream,  and  the  sleep 
is  a  welcome  relief  from  eight  years  of  insomnia,  described 
so  earnestly  that  it  may  really  be  a  glimpse  of  his  own  ex- 
perience. In  1360  he  had  endured  we  know  not  what  hard- 
ships in  a  French  prison.  To  "  drive  the  night  away  " 
he  reads  what  we  know  to  be  one  of  the  works  of  the  Latin 
poet  Ovid,  and  this  leads  to  sleep  and  a  dream.  Here  is  the 
dream  picture.  The  poet  is  awakened  by  a  chorus  of  birds 
on  a  May  morning.  When  he  hears  the  notes  of  a  hunting 
horn,  he  rises  from  his  couch  to  join  the  hounds  and  hunters, 
but  at  last  he  finds  himself  alone.  A  little  dog  leads  him 
toward  a  handsome  young  man  dressed  in  black,  sitting  at 


THE  CHAUCEE  PERIOD  67 

the  foot  of  a  huge  oak.  With  fine  tact  the  poet  addresses 
the  stranger  in  regard  to  his  sorrow.  Thereupon  the  knight 
tells  a  long  story  concerning  the  loveliest  and  most  modest 
of  women.  This  is  how  he  expresses  himself : 

I  saw  hir  daunce  so  comlily, 

Carole  and  singe  so  swetely, 

Laughe  and  pleye  so  womanly, 

And  loke  so  debonairly  (gently), 

So  goodly  speke  and  so  frendly, 

That  certes,  I  trow,  that  evermore 

Nas  (was  not)  sene  so  blisful  a  tresore  (treasure).  —  848-854. 

Although  the  poem  contains  some  noble  passages,  yet  to 
us  it  is  somewhat  tiresome  by  reason  of  its  length.  Long 
poems  were  fashionable  in  an  age  when  the  few  who  could 
read  had  abundance  of  leisure,  an  age  when  the  newspaper 
was  as  unknown  as  the  telephone. 

House  of  Fame.  —  One  of  the  best  poems  of  the  second  or 
Italian  period  of  Chaucer's  literary  career  is  the  House  of 
Fame,  whose  chief  inspiration  comes  from  Dante.  In  1715, 
more  than  three  hundred  years  later,  Pope  showed  his  appre- 
ciation of  Chaucer  by  composing  another  poem  which  he 
called  The  Temple  of  Fame. 

In  fancy  Chaucer  is  borne  by  a  golden  eagle  into  the  sky. 
The  good-natured  bird  tells  him  that  he  is  to  have  a  holiday 
from  his  toil  at  the  Custom  House,  so  irksome  to  a  man  who 
is  fond  of  books.  The  wise  eagle  lands  the  poet  near  a  moun- 
tain of  ice  on  whose  sides  the  names  of  many  famous  people 
are  marked,  but  the  sun  is  gradually  thawing  them  off.  In 
the  north,  however,  the  shadow  of  a  castle  preserves  the  fame 
even  of  the  ancients.  This  castle  or  palace,  which  Mrs. 
Browning  often  alludes  to  as  "  The  Temple  of  Glass,"  is  of 
beryl,  and  here  are  names  without  number.  It  is  the  house 
of  the  goddess  Fame,  who  sends  out  Praise  or  Slander  accord- 
ing to  her  pleasure.  The  poet  is  anxious  to  obtain  news 


68 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


rather  than  fame.  Finally  he  observes  a  gentleman  of  great 
dignity.  His  name  is  not  given,  but  no  doubt  he  is  Richard 
II.  The  poem  is  really  an  allegory  wherein  Chaucer  suggests 
to  the  king  that  he  is  overburdened  with  official  duties.  The 
hint  was  taken,  and  in  1385  the  poet  was  allowed  a  deputy. 


From  an  old  print 


FIG.  23.  —  Canterbury  Cathedral. 


The  Canterbury  Tales.  —  The  third  or  English  period  of 
Chaucer's  literary  career  brought  forth  his  masterpiece, 
The  Canterbury  Tales,  so  called  because  the  stories  are  sup- 
posed to  be  told  by  pilgrims  on  their  way  through  lovely 
rural  scenes  from  London  to  Canterbury.  Twenty-nine 
pilgrims,  not  counting  the  poet  and  the  innkeeper,  gather 
at  the  Tabard  Inn  of  Southwark,  which  is  within  view  of 
London  Bridge.  They  intend  to  visit  the  tomb  of  St.  Thomas 
a  Becket,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  had  been  slain  and 
buried  there  over  two  hundred  years  before.  Until  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII  this  was  a  favorite  shrine  of  English  pilgrims. 


THE  CHAUCER   PERIOD 


Ellesmere  MS. 

FIG.  24.  — Chaucer 
as  a  Pilgrim. 


The  pilgrims  are  going  to  travel  together  on  horseback, 
partly  for  the  pleasure  of  each  other's  company  and  partly 
as  a  protection  against  highway  robbers. 
According  to  the  general  prologue  or 
introduction,  which  is  by  far  the  most 
original  part  of  the  poem,  each  pilgrim  is 
to  tell  two  stories  on  the  way  to  Canter- 
bury and  two  more  on  the  homeward 
journey.  The  best  story-teller  is  to  be 
entertained  at  the  expense  of  the  others. 
Only  twenty-four  tales  are  related,  two 
of  which  are  in  prose,  yet  there  are  suf- 
ficient to  prove  that  Chaucer  was  a  keen 
and  kindly  student  of  human  nature. 
He  tried  merely  to  paint  a  group  of  pictures  of  English  peo- 
ple of  his  own  time,  but  he  did  the  work  with  such  superb 
skill  that  it  remains  a  portrait  gallery  for  all  time. 
Pilgrims  at  the  Inn.  —  Chaucer's  genius  could  never  have 
blossomed  had  he  been  too  lazy  to  ob- 
serve mankind  in  books  as  well  as  in 
the  flesh.  It  is  not  easy  to  know  other 
people  thoroughly;  it  is  perhaps  less 
easy  to  know  ourselves.  "  Full  wise 
is  he  that  can  himselven  knowe."  The 
poet  had  so  trained  himself  that  his 
mind  became  like  a  camera,  catching 
details  with  accuracy.  To  the  inn  he 
brings  both  saints  and  sinners  in  a  holi- 
day mood,  ready  to  mingle  for  a  time 
with  a  feeling  of  comradeship,  without 
which  the  characters  would  not  act  and 
talk  in  a  natural  manner.  All  pretence  seems  to  be  absent. 
These  men  and  women  are  not  wooden  puppets,  but  crea- 
tures of  flesh  and  blood  like  ourselves.  Chaucer  shows  us 


Ellesmere  MS. 

FKJ.  25.  — The  Wife 
of  Bath. 


70  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

neither  king  nor  beggar,  duke  nor  archbishop,  but  he  col- 
lects a  body  of  people  who  are  fairly  representative  of 
everyday  society.  Their  appearance  he  describes  and  then 
lets  them  speak  for  themselves. 

Leaving  the  Inn.  —  In  Shakespeare's  Merchant  of  Venice 
the  bagpipe,  familiar  enough  for  centuries  in  all  European 
countries,  is  an  Irish  one,  the  dramatist's  other  allusions 


EllesmereMS.  Ellesmere  MS. 

FIG.  26.  —  The  Miller.  FIG.  27.  —  The  Knight. 

being  to  English  pipes.  The  former  popularity  of  this  wind- 
instrument  is  manifest  when  Chaucer  makes  the  pilgrims 
leave  the  inn,  headed  by  the  sturdy  Miller  playing  a  lively 
march  on  the  bagpipe. 

A  baggepipe  wel  coude  he  blowe  and  soune, 

And  therewithall  he  brought  us  out  of  toune.  —  Prologlie,  565-566. 

Two  of  the  Pilgrims.  —  The  two  pilgrims  of  most  exalted 
rank  are  the  Knight  and  the  Prioress,  a  nun  ranking  nexl 
to  the  Lady  Superior  of  a  convent.  The  Knight  is  a  man  of 
chivalry  who  has  fought  in  tournaments  and  on  many 
foreign  battlefield,  yet  in  his  manner  he  is  modest  as  a  maid. 
He  is  a  soldier  who  speaks  no  evil  and  bears  no  grudge. 


THE  CHAUCER  PERIOD  71 

And  though  that  he  was  worthy  he  was  wise, 

And  of  his  port  as  meke  as  is  a  mayde. 

He  never  yet  no  vilanie  ne  sayde, 

In  alle  his  life,  unto  no  meaner  wight  (person). 

He  was  a  veray  parfit  gentil  knight.  —  Prologue,  68-72. 

The  most  poetic  of  all  the  pilgrims'  stories  are  those  told 
by  the  Knight,  the  Prioress,  and  the  Franklin  or  country 
gentleman.  The  tender-hearted  Prioress,  Madame  Eglan- 
tine, is  a  woman  of  fashion,  and  therefore  careful  about  her 
manners. 

But  for  to  speken  of  hire  conscience, 

She  was  so  charitable  and  so  pitous, 

She  wolde  wepe  if  that  she  saw  a  mous 

Caughte  in  a  trappe,  it  were  ded  or  bledde.  —  Prologue,  142-145. 

Chaucer's  Language.  —  In  Chaucer's  time  England  had 
three  chief  dialects  or  modes  of  speech,  Southern,  Midland 
(from  the  river  Thames  to  the  Humber),  and  Northern.  The 
standard  English  speech  of  to-day  is  derived  from  the  Mid- 
land dialect,  which  triumphed  over  the  others  for  two  reasons. 
In  the  first  place,  more  people  used  it  in  the  rural  districts 
of  England.  In  the  second  place,  as  many  of  the  country 
people  found  their  way  to  London,  the  city  gradually  be- 
came Midland  in  speech,  overwhelming  the  small  Southern 
element.  Since  London  was  the  seat  of  the  Court  and  the 
Parliament,  the  London  speech  very  naturally  came  to  be 
fashionable,  and  thus  it  became  the  standard  speech  of  the 
English-speaking  world.  Chaucer,  of  course,  used  it  be- 
cause he  was  a  Londoner. 

SUMMARY 

1 .  Fiers  Plowman  is  a  poetic  allegory  in  the  form  of  a  num- 
ber of  imaginary  dreams.  Piers  the  Plowman,  hero  of  the 
poem,  is  at  last  seen  to  be  Jesus  in  disguise.  The  poem, 


72  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

which  is  in  alliterative  verse,  was  written  in  order  to  show 
sympathy  with  the  working  people  of  England. 

2.  An  allegory  is  a  story  that  has  two  meanings,  but  it 
does  not  make  animals  talk  as  they  do  in  fables. 

3.  Pearl  is  another  allegory  in  alliterative  verse,  wherein 
an  unknown  man  tells  about  his  little  daughter  who  is  dead. 

4.  John  Harbour's  Bruce  is  a  historical  poem  about  Robert 
Bruce,  king  of  Scotland.     Barbour  was  a  true  patriot,  and 
therefore  he  had  too  much  sense   to  abuse  his  country's 
enemies.     He  knew  that  the  people  of  all  countries  have  some 
good  qualities. 

5.  English  prose  of  the  fourteenth  century  was  at  times 
a  sort  of  imitation  of  Latin  prose,  which  was  used  by  all  men 
of  learning  throughout  Europe. 

6.  John  Wyclif  wrote  a  translation  of  the  New  Testament 
from  Latin  into  English,  and  he  supervised  the  translation 
of  the  whole  Bible. 

7.  Some  man,  who  claimed  to  be  Sir  John  Mandeville, 
issued  a  book  of  travels  as  a  guide  to  the  Holy  Land.     It  is 
highly  entertaining,  though  we  must  not  believe  every  detail 
that  he  wrote. 

8.  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  the  greatest  writer  that  we  have 
hitherto  considered,  was  never  so  busy  that  he  failed  to  take 
time  to  enjoy  good  books.     His  first  efforts  at  writing  poetry 
are  imitations  of  the  poets  of  France.     Neither  the  Book  of 
the  Duchess,  nor  the  House  of  Fame,  nor  any  of  his  other 
works  is  so  delightful  as  the  Canterbury  Tales.     The  tales 
are  supposed  to  be  told  by  pilgrims  during  their  journey  from 
London  to  Canterbury.     Chaucer  is  admired  for  his  modesty, 
his  humor,  his  skill  as  a  story-teller,  and  his  ability  to  portray 
human  nature. 

9.  Modern  English  is  derived  from  the  Midland  dialect, 
and  Chaucer  used  this  dialect  because  he  was  a  Londoner. 


THE  CHAUCER  PERIOD  73 


TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  Who  interpreted  the  first  dream  in  Piers  Plowman?    What  is 
the  interpretation  ?    What  was  the  poet's  purpose  in  writing  the 
allegory  ? 

2.  What  is  the  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the  dream  poem  called 
Pearl  ? 

3.  How  does  Barbour  prove  that  it  is  possible  to  show  fair  play 
toward  enemies?    What  makes  The  Bruce  more  interesting  than 
the  older  romances  ? 

4.  Why  is  the  prose  of  the  fourteenth  century  more  backward 
than  the  poetry  ? 

5.  What  was  Wyclif 's  motive  in  arranging  for  a  translation  of  the 
Bible  into  English? 

6.  Account  for  the  popularity  of  Mandeville's  book  of  travel. 
Do  you  remember  any  of  the  marvels  that  he  mentions  ? 

7.  What  is  the  use  of  paying  attention  to  faces  ?     Look  at  any 
portrait  and  explain  what  you  observe. 

8.  In  what  sense  may  we  speak  of  the  unity  of  Europe  ?    How 
may  we  acquire  a  taste  for  poetry  ? 

9.  How  did  Chaucer  acquire  skill  as  a  poet  ?     Indicate  the  three 
periods  in  his  literary  career,  and  name  one  of  the  works  produced 
during  each  period.     What  was  the  poet's  object  in  writing  The 
Canterbury  Tales  1    What  qualities  in  Chaucer  are  most  admired  ? 

ADDITIONAL  AUTHORS   WITH   CHIEF  WORKS 

Laurence  Minot  (1300?-1352),  Political  Verses;  John  Gower 
(1325?-1408),  Confessio  Amantis  (A  Lover's  Confession) ;  John  of 
Trevisa  (1326?-1412),  Polychronicon  (a  translation);  Dan  Michel 
(1340?),  Ayenbite  of  Inwyt  (Remorse  of  Conscience);  Huchown 
(1342?-1377?),  Pistill  (Epistle)  of  Susan. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

a.   For  Classes 

A  pocket  edition  of  Mandeville,  with  modernized  spelling,  is  in- 
cluded in  Cassell's  National  Library,  Funk,Wagnall,N.  Y.,  paper  $  .15, 
cloth  $  .25.  A  good  library  edition,  large  and  well  printed,  is  that  in 
the  Library  of  English  Classics  by  Macmillan,  $1 .50.  The  same  firm 
has  selections  from  Chaucer  at  $.25  (Pocket  Classics).  Chaucer's 


74  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

complete  works  can  be  obtained  from  Macmillan,  $1.75;  Oxford 
Press,  $1.75;  and  Crowell,  $.60.  Besides  The  Cambridge  History, 
Garnett  and  Gosse,  Jusserand,  Quiller-Couch,  Taine,  and  Ten  Brink, 
already  mentioned,  the  following  are  recommended : 

S.  W.  Mitchell,  Pearl,  N.  Y.  (Century),  $1.00. 

H.  S.  Ward,  Canterbury  Pilgrimages,  Phila.  (Lippincott),  $1.75. 

R.  C.  Witt.    How  to  Look  at  Pictures,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $2.00. 

b.  For  Teachers  and  Others 

Chambers^  Cyclopaedia  of  English  Literature,  Phila.  (Lippincott), 
3  vols.,  $12.00  per  set. 

H.  Craik,  English  Prose,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  5  vols.,  $1.10  ea. 

E.  R.  Hooker,  Study  Book  in  English  Literature,  Bost.  (Heath), 
$1.00. 

J.  J.  Jusserand,  English  Wayfaring  Life  in  the  Middle  Ages,  N.  Y. 
(Putnam's),  $3.00. 

E.  Legouis,  Geoffrey  Chaucer,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $1.50. 

T.  R.  Lounsbury,  Studies  in  Chaucer,  N.  Y.  (Harper),  3  vols.,  $9.00. 

H.  N.  MacCracken,  College  Chaucer,  New  Haven  (Yale  Press), 
$1.50. 

W.  M.  Mackenzie,  The  Bruce,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.90. 

R.  Morris  and  W.  W.  Skeat,  Specimens  of  Early  English,  N.  Y. 
(Oxford  Press),  Pt.  II,  $1.90. 

W.  H.  Schofield,  Chivalry  in  English  Literature,  Cambridge 
(Harvard  Press),  $2.50. 

W.  W:  Skeat,  Piers  the  Plowman,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press),  $1.10. 

F.  J.  Snell,  Age  of  Chaucer,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.00. 

A.  W.  Ward,  Chaucer,  E.  M.  L.  series,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $.40. 
T.  H.  Ward,  English  Poets,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  selections  (Chaucer 
to  Tennyson),  4  vols.,  $1.00  ea. 


CHAPTER  V 
POPULAR  BALLADS 

EVERY  ONE  knows  that  popular  songs  are  composed  and 
set  to  music  year  after  year.  The  latest  song  may  become 
so  familiar  that  schoolboys  sing  or  whistle  it  in  the  streets, 
yet  it  will  probably  be  forgotten  in  a  few  months.  An  oc- 
casional song  such  as  Home,  Sweet  Home  survives  the  flight 
of  time,  because  it  possesses  qualities  that  make  a  strong 
appeal  to  the  human  heart.  Whether  they  live  or  die,  these 
popular  songs  are  not  ballads.  They  are  simply  lyrics 
or  songs  of  emotion. 

What  is  a  Ballad? — A  ballad  is  a  short,  simple  story,  told 
in  verse  by  generation  after  generation  of  the  people  in  a 
rural  community.  It  is  a  tale  which  has  been  sung  or  recited 
so  long  that  no  one  knows  who  was  the  first  singer.  A  true 
ballad  is  preserved,  not  by  professional  minstrels  or  poets, 
but  by  people  who  did  not  learn  it  out  of  a  book.  In  passing 
from  one  person  to  another  it  underwent  changes  because 
people  forgot  or  misunderstood  some  of  the  words,  and  so 
they  sang  it  as  best  they  could.  After  a  time  a  true  ballad 
has  changed  so  much  that  the  person  or  persons  who  com- 
posed it  might  not  recognize  it.  In  other  words,  a  ballad  is 
the  product  of  many  singers,  who  passed  it  on  to  others  until 
it  assumed  permanent  form,  when  some  one  wrote  it  down 
froni  the  lips  of  a  singer  and  printed  it  for  the  benefit  of  all 
lovers  of  literature. 

Diffusion  of  Ballads.  —  Any  unabridged  dictionary  ex- 
plains that  the  word  ballad  is  derived  from  the  French 

76 


76  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ballade,  a  dancing  song,  a  song  sung  by  the  people  as  they 
danced.  Such  ballads  in  crude  form  possibly  survive  in 
some  of  the  traditional  child-games  of  Britain  and  America, 
such  as  "  Round  the  Merry  May-tanzie."  Folk-songs  of 
this  sort  are  danced  and  sung  by  tribes  in  Australia,  Africa, 
and  other  parts  of  the  world.  One  generation  after  another 
memorizes  the  words  and  the  music  of  the  ballads,  the  simplest 
of  which  consist  of  only  one  or  two  lines  repeated  again  and 
again.  Sometimes  there  are  words  in  these  lines  that  have 
no  meaning.  The  original  meaning,  if  ever  there  was  one, 
has  been  lost.  That  is  to  say,  sometimes  the  words  have  no 
more  meaning  than  our  Tra-la-la. 

Date  of  Ballads.  —  It  was  during  the  fifteenth  century 
that  the  English  ballads  began  to  attract  the  attention  of  men 
of  letters,  who  hitherto  had  been  more  interested  in  the 
polished  verses  of  professional  poetry.  Oral  compositions 
readily  lend  themselves  to  new  conditions.  Substitution  of 
a  local  name,  in  place  of  another  not  so  well  known,  is  done 
every  day  by  people  who  make  or  tell  jokes,  and  this  device 
quickens  the  interest  of  the  hearers.  Words  no  longer  in 
common  use  are  apt  to  be  supplanted  by  more  modern  words, 
and  thus  an  old  ballad  may  look  more  recent  than  the  date 
of  its  birth  would  imply.  The  Robin  Hood  ballads  of  the 
country  people  are  casually  alluded  to  in  Piers  Plowman,  and 
The  Bruce  evidently  contains  a  reference  to  popular  ballads. 
Barbour  omits  the  story  of  a  victory  gained  by  Sir  John 
Soulis  on  the  plea  that 

Whoso  likes,  thai  may  hear 
Young  wemen,  when  thai  will  play, 
Syng  it  amang  thaim  ilk  (every)  day. 

Origin  of  Ballads.  —  Ireland,  Wales,  and  the  Scottish 
Highlands  have  numerous  ballads,  only  a  few  of  which  have 
been  written  and  translated  into  English.  Most  of  the  Eng- 


POPULAR  BALLADS  77 

lish  ballads,  that  now  appear  in  print,  belong  to  the  north  of 
England  and  the  Scottish  Lowlands.  In  other  words,  they 
belong  to  portions  of  the  country  that  are  not  too  near  big 
cities  like  London  and  Edinburgh.  Each  ballad  calls  for 
careful  examination  before  we  attempt  to  suggest  its  origin. 
Most  ©f  them  may  have  come  direct  from  the  heart  of  the 
people,  from  plain  country  people  who  had  a  taste  for  the 
sort  of  verse  that  pleased  the  community  as  a  whole.  A 
popular  tale,  ancient  or  recent,  would  be  versified  to  fit  a 
popular  melody.  One  ballad  may  have  been  a  dance-song, 
whose  lines  were  composed  on  the  spur  of  the  moment  by 
one  after  another  of  the  dancing  throng ;  another  may  be  the 
simplified  form  of  a  romance  that  had  been  composed  and 
set  to  music  by  professional  poets  or  by  minstrels.  In  every 
case,  however,  such  ballads  were  so  altered  by  generations 
of  amateur  singers  that  they  became  poetry  of  the  people, 
or  narrative  folk-songs. 

Kinds  of  Ballads.  —  We  may  classify  ballads  by  their 
subject-matter  in  this  way : 

1.  Romantic  —  ballads  dealing  with  love,  happy  or  un- 
happy, and  narrated  with  imaginative  sympathy.     A  good 
example  of  happy  love  is    Young  Beichan,  whereas  Bewick 
and  Grahame  shows  two  young  men  who  loved  each  other, 
and  yet  were  impelled  to  a  duel  in  which  both  perished. 

2.  Supernatural  —  those  dealing  with  ghosts,  fairies,  or 
other   beliefs   of   our   early   forefathers.     The   outcome   of 
magic  is  well  seen  in  King  Estmere. 

3.  Historical  —  dealing    mainly    with    adventures    and 
battles,  or  with  exploits  of  Robin  Hood  and  other  outlaws. 
The  Battle  of  Otterburn  celebrates  a  conflict  between  Douglas 
and  Henry  Percy  (Hotspur)  in  1388. 

4.  Domestic  —  dealing  with  some  humorous  incident,  or 
with  narratives  adapted  to  the  taste  of  children. 

Sir  Patrick  Spens.  —  "  The  grand  old  ballad  of  Sir  Patrick 


78  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Spens,"  as  the  poet  Coleridge  styled  it,  may  claim  to  be  the 
oldest  ballad  which  seems  to  have  a  historic  basis.  Some 
authorities  believe  that  it  refers  to  the  shipwreck,  on  the 
homeward  voyage,  of  the  noblemen  who  escorted  Margaret, 
daughter  of  Alexander  III  of  Scotland,  to  her  marriage  with 
Eric  of  Norway.  This  took  place  in  1281,  but  the  date  of 
the  ballad  is  unknown,  and  the  ballad  may  have  no  connection 
with  the  shipwreck  here  mentioned. 

The  opening  scene  is  at  Dunfermline,  which  lies  sixteen 
miles  northwest  of  Edinburgh.  For  a  time  it  was  the  ancient 
capital  of  Scotland,  and  it  remained  a  residence  of  royalty 
as  late  as  the  seventeenth  century.  Malcolm  Canmore, 
Robert  Bruce,  and  other  kings  were  entombed  in  the  abbey. 

The  king  sits  in  Dunfermline  toune, 

Drinking  the  blude-red  wine : 
"  0  whar  will  I  get  guid  sailor 

To  sail  this  schip  of  mine  ?  " 

Up  and  spak  an  eldern  (elderly)  knicht, 

Sat  at  the  king's  richt  knee : 
"  Sir  Patrick  Spence  is  the  best  sailor 

That  sails  upon  the  se." 

The  king  has  written  a  braid  (broad,  open)  letter, 

And  signed  it  wi'  his  hand, 
And  sent  it  to  Sir  Patrick  Spence, 

Was  walking  on  the  strand. 

The  first  line  that  Sir  Patrick  red, 

A  loud  lauch  (laugh)  lauched  he ; 
The  next  line  that  Sir  Patrick  red, 

The  teir  blinded  his  ee  (eye). 

"  O  wha  is  this  has  don  this  deid, 

This  ill  deid  don  to  me, 
To  send  me  out  this  time  o;  the  yeir, 

To  sail  upon  the  se  ! 


POPULAR  BALLADS  79 

"  Mak  haste,  mak  haste,  my  mirry  men  all, 

Our  guid  sc£dp  sails  the  morne  (to-morrow)  "  : 

"  O  say  na  sae  (so),  my  master  deir, 
For  I  feir  a  deadlie  storme. 

"  Late  late  yestreen  (last  night)  I  saw  the  new  moone 

Wi'  the  auld  moone  in  hir  arme, 
And  I  feir,  I  feir,  my  deir  master, 

That  we  will  cum  to  harme  ?  " 

O  our  Scots  nobles  wer  richt  laith  (loath) 

To  weet  (wet)  their  cork-heild  schoone  (shoes) ; 

Bot  lang  owre  (ere)  a'  the  play  wer  playd, 
Thair  hats  1  they  swam  aboone  (above). 

O  lang  lang  may  thair  ladies  sit 

Wi'  their  fans  into  thair  hand, 
Or  eir  (ere  ever)  they  se  Sir  Patrick  Spence 

Cum  sailing  to  the  land. 

O  lang  lang  may  the  ladies  stand 

Wi'  thair  gold  kerns  (combs)  in  thair  hair, 

Waiting  for  thair  ain  deir  lords, 

For  they'll  se  thame  na  mair  (no  more). 

Haf  owre  (half  over),  haf  owre  to  Aberdour, 

It's  fiftie  fadom  (fathom)  deip, 
And  thair  lies  guid  Sir  Patrick  Spence, 

Wi'  the  Scots  lords  at  his  feit. 

Criticism.  —  Criticism  is  not  faultfinding,  but  giving  a 
competent  estimate  of  the  value  of  a  composition.  The  poet 
Cowper  says  in  one  of  his  letters :  "  The  ballad  is  a  species 
of  poetry,  I  believe,  peculiar  to  this  country."  Of  course, 
he  was  mistaken.  Robert  Jamieson,  in  his  Popular  Ballads 

1  The  Scots  nobles  were  very  reluctant  to  wet  their  cork-heeled 
shoes,  but  long  before  all  the  play  was  played,  their  hats  were 
swimming  above,  and  the  owners  of  them  were  down  in  the  bottom 
of  the  sea. 


80  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

and  Songs,  was  the  first  to  point  out  the  striking  likeness  that 
exists  between  some  of  the  ballads  of  different  countries  of 
northern  Europe.  Spain  and  many  other  countries  possess 
excellent  ballads,  and  yet  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  Sir 
Patrick  Spens  is  as  remarkable  a  historical  ballad  as  one  may 
find  anywhere.  It  has  the  essence  of  true  poetry  inasmuch 
as  its  rhythmic  lines  make  a  strong  appeal  to  the  imagina- 
tion. It  begins  as  abruptly  as  a  news  story  in  a  daily  paper. 


From  photo  by  A .  Cameron 
FIG.  28.  —  Scene  from  the  Inner  Hebrides. 

Simple  and  suggestive,  not  a  word  is  wasted.  The  action 
is  swift,  and  its  very  repetitions  are  dramatic,  weaving  a  spell 
over  the  reader.  Few  ballads  have  such  charm  of  language 
or  of  sentiment,  although  most  of  them  possess  a  hearty  vigor. 
Hebridean  Ballads.  —  Do  you  see  the  house  that  nestles 
near  the  shore,  with  its  back  to  the  heaving  sea  ?  Indifferent 
to  raw  wind  and  soft  sleet,  young  and  old  are  walking  to- 
ward it  in  the  darkness.  With  that  politeness  which  is 
native  to  these  people,  the  strangers  are  invited  to  the  cosiest 
seats.  Here  is  a  twentieth-century  community  that  still 


POPULAR  BALLADS  81 

enjoys  oral  or  unwritten  literature.  Of  course,  the  people 
can  read  and  write,  but  reading  and  writing  are  for  business 
or  for  public  worship.  One  man  is  a  historian  with  a  remark- 
able memory;  another  deliberately  mingles  fiction  with 
fact  to  give  it  an  air  of  romance.  A  third  recites  heroic 
songs  and  ballads,  altering  some  of  the  words  to  express  his 
passing  mood  or  fancy.  Proverbs  are  quoted,  conundrums 
or  riddles  are  exchanged,  but  never  will  you  hear  a  word 
that  might  offend.  Surely  a  custom  of  this  sort  is  well 
adapted  to  cultivate  the  mind  and  warm  the  heart  of  an  in- 
telligent people.  They  live  among  the  Western  Isles  or 
Hebrides  of  northern  Britain,  the  scene  of  Wordsworth's 
rare  poem  The  Solitary  Reaper.  Their  ballads  are  in  Gaelic, 
but  to  see  these  islanders  is  to  see  the  manner  in  which  our 
forefathers  found  pleasure,  composing,  chanting,  and  listen- 
ing to  tales  of  bygone  days. 

Oral  English  Ballads.  —  Progress,  which  includes  the  in- 
vention of  printing  and  the  growth  of  cities  at  the  expense 
of  rural  communities,  has  almost  stopped  the  oral  circulation 
of  the  ballad  in  the  mother  country.  A  few  of  those  English 
ballads  that  were  collected  and  printed  still  survive  through 
oral  transmission.  They  were  learned  from  the  lips  of  older 
people  rather  than  from  books.  Such  survivals,  often 
mingled  with  elements  picked  up  in  a  new  environment,  are 
to  be  found  in  some  of  the  more  isolated  parts  of  America, 
notably  in  the  Alleghany  Mountains  and  along  parts  of  the 
Atlantic  coast.  In  everyday  speech  the  older  inhabitants 
of  Hatteras  Island,  North  Carolina,  employ  some  of  the  ex- 
pressions that  are  found  in  the  English  ballads. 

Back  in  the  seventh  century  Csedmon  was  embarrassed 
because  he  could  not  sing  at  a  literary  entertainment  re- 
sembling that  of  the  Hebrides,  and  since  his  time  the  fairies 
and  elves  and  mermaids  have  had  a  hard  struggle.  In  a  few 
remote  districts  of  the  British  Isles  the  fairies  continue  to 


82  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

thrive.  On  Hatteras  Island  are  three  mermaid  songs  that 
may  occasionally  be  heard  among  the  older  women.  One  of 
them,  sung  to  a  tune  of  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  opens 
with  the  lines : 

Follow,  follow  through  the  sea, 
To  the  mermaid's  melody.1 

Broadsides.  —  In  literary  history  a  broadside  is  a  broad 
or  large  sheet  of  paper  with  a  ballad  or  other  matter  printed 
on  one  side.  In  England  the  songs  and  ballads  of  the  people 
were  at  an  early  date  printed  in  the  shape  of  broadsides  or 
broadsheets,  such  as  were  sold  in  Shakespeare's  time.  Gener- 
ally ornamented  with  crude  woodcuts  or  pictures,  they  were 
sold  in  thousands  from  the  sixteenth  century  onward ; 
indeed  they  are  still  printed  in  London  and  other  cities.  The 
place  of  the  wandering  minstrel  of  older  days  was  taken  by 
the  man  who  sang  broadside  ballads  in  the  streets  and  at 
village  fairs  in  order  to  induce  his  hearers  to  purchase  copies.2 
Other  men  who  could  not  or  would  not  sing  acted  as  hawkers 
or  pedlers. 

The  broadside  ballads  are  of  two  kinds,  real  ballads  of  the 
people  and  imitations.  Sometimes  the  old  traditional  ballads 
were  altered  by  hack-writers,  that  is,  writers  employed 
by  publishers  who  paid  them  to  meet  the  public  demand. 
More  than  once  Shakespeare  and  other  Elizabethan  dramatists 
jeer  at  these  ballad-mongers  or  ballad-makers.  The  imita- 
tions of  ballads  were  entirely  the  work  of  men  who  made  them 
for  money.  As  a  rule  they  have  but  little  literary  value, 
although  they  throw  a  side-light  on  the  language  and  customs 
of  the  age  in  which  they  were  written. 

1  C.  Cobb,  "Early  English  Survivals  in  Hatteras  Island,"  North 
Carolina  Review,  1910. 

2  Even  now  you  may  hear  such  men  in  some  parts  of  the  mother- 
land. 


POPULAR  BALLADS  83 

Chap  Books.  —  Chap  books  are  little  books  like  pamphlets, 
bound  in  paper  wrappers.  Most  of  them  are  adorned  with 
a  crude  woodcut  or  two,  although  others  have  finely  colored 
plates  and  are  printed  in  black  letter,  that  is,  in  the  Gothic 
or  Old  English  type  used  in  the  earliest  printed  books.  They 
were  sold  throughout  the  British  Isles  by  travelling  chapmen 
or  pedlers.  Chap  books  of  the  time  of  Charles  I,  for  instance, 
are  invaluable  to  those  who  wish  to  know  the  feelings  of  the 
country  folk  toward  the  troubles  which  led  to  the  appearance 
of  Cromwell.  Besides  political  discussions,  recipes,  and 
weather  forecasts  the  chap  books  contain  tales,  anecdotes, 
biography,  songs,  and  ballads.  In  fact,  the  chap  books  were 
the  cheap  libraries  of  the  poor  folk  for  several  centuries,  and 
through  them  different  versions  of  some  of  the  genuine 
ballads  are  preserved. 

Garlands,  in  a  literary  sense,  are  collections  of  choice  bits 
of  prose  or  poetry.  They  differ  from  broadsides  only  in 
their  form  and  are  really  a  species  of  chap  book.  Several 
of  the  Robin  Hood  texts  first  appeared  in  garlands. 

Ballads  and  Other  Poetry.  —  Professional  poetry  had  at- 
tained a  high  degree  of  polish  in  the  days  of  Dryden  and 
Pope,  but  fashions  change  in  literature  as  in  life.  Long 
before  1765  popular  ballads  had  appeared  in  broadsides  and 
in  collections,  but  Percy's  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry 
appeared  in  a  dignified  form  at  the  moment  when  educated 
people  were  ready  to  give  it  a  welcome.  Naturally  it  won 
instant  popularity,  and  in  some  measure  it  tended  to  introduce 
elements  that  had  for  a  while  been  rather  neglected  in  English 
poetry.  Every  change  in  fashion  leads  to  extravagances 
on  the  part  of  those  who  fail  to  understand  the  spirit  that 
lies  behind  the  movement,  and  so  it  was  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  Here  is  the  main  issue  for  us  at  this  stage.  Why 
did  the  ballads  influence  other  types  of  poetry?  The 
answer  'is  simple.  It  was  the  strong  imaginative  quality 


84  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  the  ballads  that  tended  to  quicken  other  forms  of  poetry. 
There  was  romance  in  them,  and  romance  implies  aspiration, 
desire  for  something  that  seems  better,  something  closer  to 
the  ideals  of  human  nature. 

SUMMARY      * 

'  1.  Popular  songs  of  to-day  are  lyrics  or  songs  that  depict 
emotion,  whereas  ballads  tell  a  short  story  in  simple  verses. 
Long  before  any  true  ballad  was  printed,  it  had  been  chanted 
or  recited  and  handed  on  by  word  of  mouth  from  father  to 
son.  Until  a  ballad  is  written  or  printed,  it  is  sure  to  undergo 
constant  changes. 

2.  Ballads  exist  in  all  lands,  even  among  lowly  tribes  of 
hunters.     Of  course,  some  of  these  ballads  have  only  a  line 
or  two,  and  they  may  contain  words  without   any  more 
meaning  than  our  Tra-la-la. 

3.  No  one  knows  when  English  ballads  were  first  composed, 
but  they  began  to  interest  literary  men  in  the  fifteenth 
century.     Most  of  the  extant  specimens  belong  to  northern 
England  and  to  Scotland,  nearly  all  of  them  being  the  work 
of  plain  people  living  in  the  country. 

4.  Ballads  may  be  classified  as  romantic,  supernatural, 
historical,  or  domestic. 

5.  The  historical  ballad  Sir  Patrick  Spens  is  supposed  to 
be  based  upon  a  shipwreck  that  occurred  in  the  North  Sea 
in  the  year  1281. 

6.  Among  the  Hebrides  Islands  some  ballads   are  now 
being  shaped  and  transmitted  in  the  way  that  used  to  be 
common  all  over  the  British  Isles.     A  few  of  the  printed 
ballads  are  still  recited  by  English-speaking  people  who  did 
not  learn  them  from  a  book. 

7.  A  broadside  is  a  broad  sheet  of  paper  with  a  ballad  or 
some  sort  of  printed  matter  on  one  side  of  the  sheet.     Broad- 


POPULAR  BALLADS  85 

side  ballads  are  either  real  folk-poetry  or  verses  written  so 
as  to  look  like  ballads. 

8.  Chap  books  are  cheap  books  resembling  pamphlets, 
some  of  which  contain  old  ballads. 

9.  Ballads  eventually  influenced  professional  poetry  by 
helping  to  introduce  a  new  reverence  for  imagination  and 
simple  naturalness. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  are  most  of  the  new  popular  songs  soon  forgotten  ?     Dis- 
tinguish between  a  popular  song  and  a  ballad.     What  induces 
change  in  the  form  of  unwritten  ballads  ? 

2.  It  is  hard  to  tell  when  a  ballad  was  first  composed.     Why? 
What  two  poems  of  the  fourteenth  century  contain  a  reference  to 
popular  ballads  ? 

3.  To  what  class  of  ballads  does   Sir   Patrick   Spens  belong? 
Do  you  like  it  ?     Give  a  reason. 

4.  What  is  criticism  ? 

5.  To  what  islands  does  Wordsworth  allude  in   The  Solitary 
Reaper  f    Why  should  a  student  care  anything  about  them  ? 

6.  Why  are  ballads  not  so  common  as  they  were  among  our  fore- 
fathers ?    Are  there  any  traces  of  old  English  ballads  in  America  ? 

7.  Distinguish  between  a  broadside  and  a  chap  book.     What 
purpose  was  served  by  broadside  ballads  and  by  chap  books  ?     What 
is  a  hackwriter  ? 

8.  In  what  way   did   ballads   begin   to   influence  professional 
poetry  of  the  eighteenth  century  ? 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 
I.    Criticism 

W.  J.  Courthope,  History  of  English  Poetry,  6  vols.,  N.  Y.  (Mac- 
millan), $3.25  ea.  (Vols.  I  and  II.) 

A.  B.  Gomme,  Children's  Singing  Games,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
2  vols.,  $1.50  ea. 

F.  B.  Gummere,  Beginnings  of  Poetry,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $3.00. 

T.  F.  Henderson,  The  Ballad  in  Literature,  N.  Y.  (Putnam's),  $  .40. 

W.  P.  Ker,  On  the  History  of  the  Ballads,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press), 
$.60. 


86  ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 

G.  M.  Miller,  Dramatic  Element  in  the  Popular  Ballad,  Cincin- 
nati (Univ.  of  Cinci.  Press),  $.50. 

W.  W.  Newell,  Games  and  Songs  of  American  Children,  N.  Y. 
(Harper),  $1.50.  Illus. 

G.  G.  Smith,  The  Transition  Period,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $1.50. 

II.   Collections 

Besides  the  list  given  in  Sidgwick's  Popular  Ballads,  the  following 
collections  of  ballads  (with  introductions)  are  recommended : 

M.  J.  Brown,  Historical  Ballad  Poetry  of  Ireland,  N.  Y.  (Long- 
mans), $1.00. 

E.  A.  Bryant,  Best  English  and  Scottish  Ballads,  N.  Y.  (Crowell), 
$.75. 

F.  J.  Child,  English  and  Scottish  Popular  Ballads,  Bost.   (Hough- 
ton),  5  vols.     This  is  the  standard  work  —  out  of  print. 

G.  Eyre-Todd,  Scottish  Ballad  Poetry,  Glasgow  (Hodge),  $1.00. 
R.  Ford,  Vagabond  Songs  and  Ballads  of  Scotland,  Paisley  (Gard- 
ner), $1.25. 

F.  B.  Gummere,  Old  English  Ballads,  Bost.  (Ginn),  Glossary, 
notes,  etc.  $  .80. 

R.  D.  Joyce,  Ballads  of  Irish  Chivalry,  N.  Y.  (Longmans),  $.90. 

H.  C.  Sargent  and  G.  L.  Kittredge,  English  and  Scottish  Ballads, 
Bost.  (Houghton),  $3.00.  An  excellent  introduction  to  Child's 
collection. 

F.  Sidgwick,  Popular  Ballads  of  the  Olden  time,  Lond.  (Bullen), 
$1.00. 

F.  Sidgwick,  Ballads  and  Poems  Illustrating  English  History,  N.  Y. 
(Putnam's),  $  .40.  Prepared  especially  .for  beginners. 

R.  A.  Witham  and  W.  A.  Neilson,  Representative  English  and 
Scottish  Popular  Ballads,  Bost.  (Houghton).  Paper  $  .30,  cloth  $.40. 
Riverside  Literature  series. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD 

1400-1564 

FOR  the  sake  of  convenience  the  history  of  Europe  may  be 
divided  into  three  sections  —  ancient,  medieval,  and  modern. 
The  ancient  or  oldest  form  of  civilization  received  its  death- 
blow when  the  western  Roman  Empire  was  crushed  by  hosts 
of  barbarians  in  the  fifth  century.  Medieval  times,  or  the 
Middle  Ages,  are  so  called  because  they  are  in  the  middle 
of  the  ancient  and  modern  sections  of  political  and  literary 
history.  The  Middle  Ages  extend  from  the  fifth  century 
to  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth.  The  fifteenth  and  the 
first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  may  be  called  the  transition 
period,  the  period  that  reveals  the  gradual  change  from 
medieval  to  modern  civilization.  Of  course,  there  is  no 
definite  year  that  marks  the  beginning  of  such  a  transition. 
However  carefully  we  watch,  we  can  never  observe  a  healthy 
child  growing  at  any  particular  moment.  The  growth  is 
gradual  because  it  is  natural,  and  so  it  is  with  the  growth 
or  development  of  literature. 

The  Revival  of  Learning.  —  One  of  the  chief  factors  in 
producing  the  transition  from  medieval  to  modern  ways  of 
thinking  is  known  as  the  Revival  of  Learning  or  the  New 
Learning.  Here  the  word  learning  means  knowledge  of 
ancient  or  classical  Latin  and  Greek.  Revival  really  means 
bringing  back  to  life,  but  it  is  a  mistake  to  fancy  that  Europe 
was  in  any  sense  dead  prior  to  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
Revival  of  Learning  does  not  imply  that  medieval  Europe 

87 


88  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

had  been  ignorant  of  classical  learning.  The  schools  of  the 
monasteries  and  the  cathedrals  had  preserved  Latin  ever 
since  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  though  classical  Greek 
was  not  nearly  so  well  known.  European  scholars  were 
mostly  clergymen.  From  about  the  fifth  century  they  were 
not  content  with  the  plain  meaning  of  the  Scriptures  and  the 
Latin  books  in  general.  They  tried  to  find  a  hidden  mean- 
ing, a  sort  of  allegory,  and  this  custom  spread  to  European 
poetry  where  we  find  ideas  presented  in  the  form  of  imaginary 
dreams,  as,  for  instance,  in  Chaucer's  House  of  Fame. 

The  Revival  of  Learning  means  a  new  way  of  studying 
and  applying  the  ancient  classics.  It  was  in  Italy  during 
the  fourteenth  century  that  the  old  Latin  and  Greek  writings 
began  to  be  studied  as  literature.  Men  no  longer  examined 
them  to  obtain  facts,  but  to  enjoy  the  charm  and  naturalness 
of  the  style.  For  the  first  time  they  began  to  appreciate 
the  beauty  of  the  sentences  of  ancient  writers  and  the  beauty 
of  the  ancient  conception  of  life  upon  earth. 

Humanism.  —  The  humanitas  of  the  old  Latin  writers  is 
the  refining  influence  of  good  literature.  A  man  was  con- 
sidered to  be  truly  human  when  his  character  had  been 
shaped  by  the  best  principles  of  classical  literature.  Thus 
humanism,  which  is  merely  another  name  for  the  New  Learn- 
ing, is  the  polish  received  from  a  training  in  the  ancient 
classics,  especially  those  of  Greece.  All  through  the  Middle 
Ages  Constantinople  had  been  the  centre  of  Greek  learning, 
but  in  1453  this  city  was  captured  by  the  Turks.  No  doubt 
many  teachers  of  Greek  left  for  Italy  and  other  lands,  yet 
this  event  was  merely  an  incident  in  the  story  of  humanism. 
\t  least  a  century  earlier,  Greek  studies  had  been  earnestly 
pursued  at  Florence  and  other  cities  of  Italy.  In  short,  the 
Italian  revival  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  was 
really  an  endeavor  to  return  to  the  noblest  ideals  of  ancient 
Greek  manhood. 


THE   TRANSITION  PERIOD 


89 


The  Italian  Revival.  —  Why  did  the  Revival  of  Learning 
begin  in  Italy,  spreading  finally  to  England  and  other  coun- 
tries ?  It  is  not  easy  to  give  a  complete  answer,  and  yet  two 
or  three  facts  are  sometimes  better  than  two  or  three  dozen 
theories.  Venice  was  the  commercial  centre  of  Europe,  while 
Rome  was  its  religious  centre.  Ships  of  the  Venetian  republic 
carried  most  of  the  Crusaders  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  many 


FIG.  29. —  Venice. 


From  an  old  print 


Venetian  citizens  had  settled  as  traders  in  Constantinople. 
Other  Italian  cities  such  as  Genoa  became  very  prosperous 
through  foreign  trade.  The  people  of  those  cities  began  to 
take  pride  in  the  language  and  literature  of  the  ancient 
Romans,  who  for  centuries  had  ruled  the  civilized  world. 
Patriotic  sentiment  quickened  the  desire  to  dignify  Latin  by 
cultivating  the  ease  and  accuracy  of  the  ancients.  Well 
aware  that  the  Greeks  had  aided  Latin  literature  in  the 
olden  days,  the  Italians  of  Florence  and  other  cities 
became  imbued  with  a  desire  to  study  Greek  models.  Venice 


90  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

was  in  a  position  to  import  Greek  manuscripts  and  Greek 
teachers,  and  in  this  praiseworthy  effort  she  was  encouraged 
by  the  church  at  Rome. 

The  Renaissance.  —  It  is  a  familiar  fact,  that  the 
French  word  Renaissance  means  new  birth,  and  the  word 
is  useful  enough  if  we  are  willing  to  give  due  credit  to  the 
Middle  Ages.  The  Renaissance  is  the  outcome  of  the  Revival 
of  Learning.  The  new  interest  in  the  ancient  classics  stirred 
men's  reason  and  imagination.  For  example,  the  leaders 
of  the  people  became  anxious  to  save  the  remains  of  ancient 
sculpture  and  architecture  from  destruction.  Thus  arose 
in  Italy  during  the  fifteenth  century  the  Renaissance  archi- 
tecture, which  at  first  was  an  attempt  to  revive  classical 
forms.  By  the  next  century  the  style  in  its  modified  form 
had  taken  root  in  England.  The  new  movement  began  to 
affect  painting  in  the  fourteenth  century,  developing  with 
the  work  of  Raphael,  Michel  Angelo,  and  other  artists  of 
world-wide  renown.  Every  phase  of  the  movement  was 
inspired  by  a  desire  for  the  highest  efficiency,  a  desire  that 
has  continued  to  stimulate  modern  literature.  It  was  for 
this  reason  that  society  began  to  lay  more  stress  upon  the 
worth  of  its  individual  members,  and  it  was  for  this  reason 
that  towns  and  petty  states  tended  to  unite  into  well- 
organized  nations. 

The  Invention  of  Printing.  —  The  invention  of  printing 
alone  would  be  sufficient  to  make  the  fifteenth  century  one 
of  the  most  illustrious  in  the  world's  history.  It  was  one  of 
the  biggest  tributaries  that  joined  the  main  stream  of  the 
Renaissance.  The  literary  revival,  which  was  narrower  in 
scope  than  the  Renaissance,  created  a  demand  for  books, 
and  the  printing-press,  under  the  patronage  of  the  church, 
rendered  the  new  knowledge  accessible  even  to  those  who  were 
not  wealthy.  Without  this  unique  stimulus  to  the  develop- 
ment of  literature,  most  people  would  still  be  unable  to  read 
and  write. 


THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD 


91 


A  Royal  Poet  (1394-1437).  —  In  1431  Joan  of  Arc,  the 
wonderful  maid  of  Orleans,  was  burned  at  the  stake,  after 
having  led  the  French  troops  to.  a  series  of  victories  over 
the  English  invaders.  Six  years  later  another  woman,  one 
of  the  Scottish  queen's  ladies,  brought  new  lustre  to  her  sex. 
It  was  a  dark  night  in 
February.  When  the 
tramp  of  armed  men  was 
heard  outside  Blackfriars 
Abbey  in  Perth,  and  the 
torches  threw  their  glare 
against  the  windows  of 
the  royal  chamber,  it  was 
Catherine  Douglas  who, 
for  lack  of  a  bolt,  thrust 
her  arm  into  the  staples 
of  the  door,  so  as  to  give 
James  I  a  chance  to  es- 
cape. 

Truly,  the  career  of 
this  king,  like  that  of 
most  of  the  Stuart  kings, 
reads  like  a  romance.  F™  <***„«* 

-ru  «,          T  .  FIG.  30.  —  James  I,  the  Royal  Poet. 

-bleven    years    after    his 

birth  at  Dunfermline,  the  ship  on  which  the  young  James  was 
sailing  to  France  was  captured  by  the  English.  By  order 
of  Henry  V  the  imprisoned  prince  received  an  excellent 
education.  Sixteen  years  later  he  served  as  an  officer  of 
English  troops  during  the  French  war.  Two  years  there- 
after he  met  the  Lady  Jane  Beaufort,  niece  of  Henry  IV,  a 
lady  who,  according  to  the  poem  of  her  lover,  had 

Beautee  eneuch  to  mak  a  world  to  dote. 
In  1424,  the  year  after  he  first  saw  her,  James  promised  the 


92  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

English  an  enormous  ransom  for  his  freedom,  and  was  allowed 
to  take  his  bride  northward  into  Scotland.  He  found  his 
native  land  in  much  trouble.  The  lawless  barons  he  re- 
^strained  with  a  resolute  hand,  but  in  1437  his  enemies  stabbed 
him  to  death  in  the  city  of  Perth. 

James  I  lived  in  an  age  when  it  was  fashionable  for  poets 
to  indulge  in  allegory.  His  literary  reputation  rests  upon 
The  Kingis  Quair  (King's  Quire  or  Book),  whose  introduction 
is  not  without  originality.  Unable  to  sleep,  the  poet  broods 
over  his  misfortunes.  With  an  undercurrent  of  humor, 
quiet  though  quick,  he  compares  his  life  to  a  feeble  boat 
tossing  on  a  winter  night  among  black  rocks  that  thrust  up 
from  the  waves. 

The  lak  of  wynd  is  the  deficultee 

In  enditing  of  this  lytill  treatise  small.  —  Stanza  18. 

He  alludes  to  his  capture  in  boyhood.  If  birds,  beasts,  and 
fishes  are  free,  why  should  Fortune  make  him  a  slave  ?  James 
gives  a  fine  description  of  a  fair  lady  walking  in  the  garden 
with  her  two  maidens,  and  she  it  is  with  whom  he  falls  in 
love.  When  she  becomes  gracious,  he  blesses  even  his 
prison  walls.  In  spite  of  old-fashioned  imagery,  some  of 
which  he  borrowed  from  Chaucer,  the  melodious  lines  often 
throb  with  sincere  emotion,  and  no  poet  has  ever  painted  the 
longing  of  love  with  more  delicacy.  After  addressing  a  poetic 
prayer  to  the  goddess  of  love,  he  expresses  his  belief  that 
even  to  be  the  lady's  dog  is  worth  while. 

When  I  with  gude  intent  this  orisoun  (prayer) 

Thus  endit  had,  I  stopped  a  lytill  stound  (while) ; 
And  oft  mine  eye  full  pitously  adown 

I  cast,  behalding  unto  hir  lytill  hound, 

That  with  his  bells  playit  on  the  ground. 
Then  wold  I  say,  and  sigh  therewith  a  lyte  (little), 

A  !  wele  were  him  that  now  were  in  thy  plight. 

—  Stanza  53. 


THE   TRANSITION  PERIOD  93 

Sir  Thomas  Malory  (i4oo?-i47i).  —  Sir  Thomas  Malory 
may  have  been  born  in  Warwickshire  about  the  year  1400, 
and  in  his  youth  he  seems  to  have  served  under  the  famous 
Earl  of  Warwick  in  the  fighting  against  the  French.  Ap- 
parently Malory  took  part  in  the  bitter  Wars  of  the  Roses 


FIG.  31.  —  Glastonbury  Abbey,  where  King  Arthur  is  Buried. 

(1455-1485),  joining  the  party  of  Lancaster.  The  Lan- 
castrian badge  was  the  red  rose,  whereas  the  party  of  York 
adopted  the  white  rose.  In  1471  Malory  was  buried  at  the 
Gray  Friars  near  Newgate  in  the  suburbs  of  the  London  of 
that  time. 

Malory's  reputation  as  a  great  prose  writer  rests  upon  his 
Morte  d' Arthur  (Death  of  Arthur),  a  work  which  is  based 
mainly  upon  French  romances.  The  story  of  this  ancient 


94  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

king  of  Britain  has  already  been  considered  in  connection 
with  Layamon.  Malory's  romance  is  no  mere  translation, 
for  he  selects  his  material  to  suit  his  own  artistic  feeling. 
Here  and  there  he  adds  original  touches  in  order  to  make  his 
work  interesting  to  the  people  of  his  time,  and  this  he  has 
done  so  well  that  it  is  readable  to  this  day.  "  How  Sir 
Lancelot  came  into  the  Chapel  Perilous,  and  gat  there  of  a 
dead  corpse  a  piece  of  cloth  and  a  sword."  "  How  the 
damsel  and  Beaumains  came  to  the  siege  and  came  to  a 
sycamore  tree,  and  then  Beaumains  blew  an  horn,  and 
then  the  Knight  of  the  Red  Lands  came  to  fight  him." 
Chapter-titles  like  these  are  enough  to  make  any  one  eager 
to  read,  even  if  at  times  one  is  rather  puzzled  to  see  the  con- 
nection between  the  various  tales  or  incidents. 

Malory's  book  is  generally  admired  for  its  simplicity 
and  dignity  of  style ;  the  story  never  drags,  though  the  con- 
struction of  some  of  the  sentences  is  tangled.  This  prose 
romance  of  the  fifteenth  century  reveals  the  eternal  triangle, 
as  it  is  sometimes  called,  the  action  and  reaction  between 
the  three  leading  characters  —  King  Arthur,  Sir  Lancelot, 
and  the  unfortunate  Queen  Guinevere.  Tennyson's  Idylls 
of  the  King,  Matthew  Arnold's  Death  of  Tristram,  and 
Morris's  Defense  of  Guinevere  are  among  the  modern  works 
that  owe  much  to  Malory. 

William  Caxton  (1422  7-1491).  —  Malory's  romance,  pub- 
lished in  1485,  was  one  of  the  books  issued  by  William  Caxton 
from  his  printing-press  beside  Westminster  Abbey,  and  as 
the  pioneer  English  printer  and  publisher  he  is  well  worthy 
of  mention  in  any  literary  history.  Born  in  Kent  about 
1422,  Caxton  served  as  an  apprentice  to  a  London  merchant. 
Later  he  crossed  over  to  the  continent  and  settled  in  the 
Flemish  city  of  Bruges,  where  he  became  prosperous.  As  a 
relief  from  business  cares  he  devoted  his  leisure  to  literature. 
By  his  translation  of  a  French  story  of  the  siege  of  Troy,  he 


THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD  95 

won  the  favor  of  an  English  princess  who  had  become  the 
wife  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  so  many  people  requested 
copies  that  Caxton  felt  obliged  to  turn  his  attention  to  the 
new  invention  of  printing.  After  mastering  its  details  he 
introduced  printing  into  his  native  land  about  the  year  1476. 

He  translated  other  books  with  a  fair  degree  of  success. 
Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales  and  many  other  works  came  from 
the  press  before  Caxton's  death  in  1491. 

Pastoral  Poetry.  —  In  the  literary  sense  a  pastoral  is 
a  poem  in  which  shepherds,  sensitive  to  the  charm  of  rural 
sights  and  sounds,  are  supposed  to  speak  and  act  in  a  simple 
cheerful  manner.  The  earlier  history  of  the  pastoral  shows 
that  it  is  a  poem  apparently  filled  with  the  spirit  of  rural 
life,  as  seen  through  the  eyes  of  a  poet  who  is  often  a 
nature-lover  dwelling  in  a  city.  The  pastoral  professes 
to  reveal  country  love  and  country  life,  stripped  of  its 
homeliness  and  beautified  by  the  poet's  fancy.  It  is  a 
type  of  poetry  that  was  created  in  sunny  Sicily  many 
centuries  ago.  At  intervals  it  bloomed  in  Italy  and  France, 
until  it  crossed  to  Britain,  where  it  was  first  cherished  by 
Robert  Henry  son. 

Robert  Henryson  (i43o?-i5o6?).  — About  the  year  1430 
two  notable  men  were  born.  One  was  Villon,  the  most 
brilliant  French  poet  of  the  century,  and  the  other  was 
Robert  Henryson,  who,  like  Longfellow,  was  a  teacher  as  well 
as  a  poet.  After  receiving  a  college  education  Henryson 
became  master  or  principal  of  the  Abbey  School  at  Dunferm- 
line.  It  is  still  possible  to  tell  something  of  the  poet's  nature 
from  the  tone  of  his  verses.  Quiet  and  genial,  he  must  have 
been  a  favorite  with  his  pupils.  When  school  was  dismissed, 
he  would  take  a  walk,  sometimes  along  the  seashore,  some- 
times far  inland,  thinking  over  what  he  had  read  or  heard  or 
observed.  Henryson  died  about  the  year  1506,  a  date  which 
also  marks  the  death  of  Christopher  Columbus. 


96 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


FIG. 


From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch 

32.  —  "  Whiles 
plet." 


in     arms 


Henryson  plunges  into  his  subject  with  the  vigor  and  sure- 
ness  of  a  master.  Robene  and  Makyne,  the  earliest  of  British 
pastorals,  is  amusing  as  well  as  touching.  We  see  the  shep- 
herdess wooing  the  shepherd.  Though  at  first  Robene  treats 
the  girl's  attentions  with  indifference,  yet  after  an  interval 
he  begins  to  discover  that  he  is  really  in  love.  Next  time 

he  meets  Makyne  he  confesses 
his  affection,  but  her  reply  is, 
"  Robene,  that  warld  is  all 
away."  They  never  reach  an 
understanding.  The  easy-flow- 
ing metre  of  the  dialogue  re- 
sembles that  of  the  popular 
ballads,  and  its  blunt  humor, 
directness,  and  naturalness  make 
it  one  of  the  few  life-like  pas- 
torals in  literary  history. 
Here  is  a  stanza  of  the  fable  of  The  Country  Mouse  and 
The  Town  Mouse: 

The  hearty  joy  —  Well,  well,  if  you  had  sene  — 

Was  kithit  (known)  when  that  these  twa  sisteris  met, 

And  greit  kyndenes  was  shown  thame  betwene ; 

For  whiles  they  laughed,  and  whiles  for  joy  they  gret  (wept), 
Whiles  kissit  sweit,  and  whiles  in  arms  plet  (folded) ; 

And  thus  they  fared  till  soberit  was  tjiair  mood, 

Then  foot  for  foot  unto  the  chamber  yude  (went).      —  Stanza  5. 

Among  the  well-known  poems  of  Henryson  it  is  doubtful 
if  any  are  so  popular  as  his  thirteen  fables,  which  may  have 
been  written  between  1470  and  1480.  In  the  guise  of  fables 
the  kindly  poet  throws  light  upon  the  manners  and  customs 
of  his  time.  He  is  quick  to  detect  the  real  man  behind  the 
words  and  deeds.  All  of  the  fables  are  pictures  of  life  drawn 
playfully,  yet  accurately,  by  a  sympathetic  observer  of  men 
and  women  as  well  as  mice  and  poultry. 


THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD 


97 


The  Flying  Man.  —  Did  you  ever  wish  that  you  were  a 
bird  ?  If  you  have  ever  been  a  child,  then  you  have  certainly 
been  a  bird  more  times  than  you  might  care  to  remember. 
From  these  fancies  and  dreams  of  childhood  men  have  been 
working  for  hundreds  of  years,  so  that  now  most  of  us  have 
seen  airships  or  aeroplanes  that  fly  like  monstrous  birds 
faster  than  a  railroad  train.  It  was  William  Dunbar  who 


FIG.  33.  —  Stirling  Castle. 

wrote  the  first  poem  about  a  flying  machine.  You  can  still 
hear  him  laughing  at  the  unlucky  Abbot  of  Tungland, 
or  Tongland,  a  monastery  whose  remains  may  be  seen  in 
Galloway.  The  abbot  tried  to  fly  from  the  battlements  of 
Stirling  Castle,  but  he  was  born  too  soon,  for  his  daring 
experiment  was  regarded  as  a  joke.  Here  are  a  few  lines 
of  Dunbar's  poem  : 

And,  when  he  saw  that  naught  availed, 
A  feathering  on  he  took, 


98  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

And  schupe  (made  ready)  in  Turkey  for  to  flee, 
And  when  that  he  did  mount  on  he  (high) 
All  fowls  forleit  (wondered)  what  he  should  be 
That  ever  did  on  him  look. 

The  myttane  (hawk)  and  Saint  Martin's  fowl  (martin) 
Thought  he  had  bene  the  horned  owl ; 
They  set  upon  him  with  a  yowle  (yell), 

And  gave  him  dint  (blow)  for  dint. 
The  cuckoo,  cormorant,  and  gled  (hawk) 
Smote  him  with  buffets  till  he  bled ; 
The  sparrow-hawk  to  the  spring  him  sped, 

As  fierce  as  fire  of  flint. 

He  sheared  his  feathering  that  was  schene  (fine), 
And  slippit  owt  of  it  full  clene, 
And  in  a  mire  up  to  the  ene  (eyes), 
Amang  the  glar  (mud)  did  glide. 

—  The  Fenyeit  Freir,  Stanzas  8-10. 

William  Dunbar  (14607-1520).  —  The  fifteenth  century 
was  one  of  the  most  brilliant  periods  in  Scottish  history. 
Scotland  has  four  universities^  and  this  century  marks  the 
founding  of  the  universities  of  St.  Andrews,  Glasgow,  and 
Aberdeen.  National  peace  brought  prosperity,  and  pros- 
perity brought  leisure  as  well  as  encouragement  for  literature 
and  the  nobler  things  of  life. 

William  Dunbar  was  born  about  1460  in  Lothian,  a  district 
which  includes  Edinburgh.  At  the  University  of  St.  Andrews 
he  received  his  higher  education.  In  1491  he  seems  to  have 
been  a  member  of  an  embassy  that  visited  France,  Germany, 
and  other  countries.  In  1501  he  was  again  one  of  a  com- 
pany sent  to  England  to  arrange  the  marriage  of  James  IV 
with  the  Princess  Margaret.  In  1511  Dunbar  attended  the 
Queen's  reception  at  Aberdeen.  About  nine  years  later  he 
was  gone. 

It  will  never  do  to  take  seriously  all  that  Dunbar  says  about 
himself  or  others.  A  natural  humorist,  he  often  says  the 


THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD  99 

very  opposite  of  what  he  means.  No  doubt  if  he  were  living 
in  the  twentieth  century  his  language  at  times  might  have 
been  different,  and  yet  his  wit  and  his  recklessness  fail  to 
hide  the  wealth  of  sentiment  that  lies  underneath.  In 
conciseness  and  in  variety  of  metre  he  seems  to  surpass  all 
earlier  poets. 

Four  centuries  have  passed  since  Dunbar  composed  The 
Dance  of  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins  and  ninety  or  a  hundred  other 
poems.  They  breathe  that  joy  in  being  true  to  one's  self, 
that  joy  in  living,  that  joy  in  humanity,  which  we  link  with 
the  Renaissance.  With  the  hammer  of  imagination  he  shapes 
every  form  of  European  verse  upon  the  anvil  of  his  subtle 
brain,  and  always  he  works  with  the  ease  of  genius. 

Scott's  Conception  of  Douglas.  —  Red  and  hot  was  the 
Douglas  blood,  which  left  its  mark  on  many  a  battlefield  of 
medieval  Europe.  Gavin  Douglas  was  a  poet,  and  this  is 
his  pen-portrait  as  it  appears  in  Scott's  Marmion  : 

A  bishop  by  the  altar  stood, 

A  noble  lord  of  Douglas  blood, 
With  mitre  sheen  and  rocquet  white ; 

Yet  showed  his  meek  and  thoughtful  eye 

But  little  pride  of  prelacy ; 

More  pleased  that,  in  a  barbarous  age, 

He  gave  rude  Scotland  Virgil's  page, 
Than  that  beneath  his  rule  he  held 
The  bishopric  of  fair  Dunkeld.    _  Canto  ^  328_336 

Gavin  Douglas  (1474  7-1522) .  —  The  birth-year  of  Italy's 
great  poet  Ariosto  was  1474,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  year 
of  the  birth  of  Gavin  Douglas.  Douglas  was  the  third  son 
of  Archibald,  Earl  of  Angus,  nicknamed  Bell-the-Cat. 
Educated  at  the  University  of  St.  Andrews  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent, young  Douglas  received  his  first  church  appointment 
in  1496.  A  little  later  he  became  rector  of  Prestonkirk 
near  Dunbar,  and  here  it  was  that  he  composed  The  Police 


100 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


of  Honour,  which  was  finished  in  1501.  He  now  became 
Dean  or  Provost  of  St.  Giles  in  Edinburgh.  It  was  during 
his  connection  with  this  church  that  he  is  supposed  to  have 

written  King  Hart.  In 
1512  he  began  his  trans- 
lation of  Virgil,  complet- 
ing it  the  following  year. 
Douglas  became  in- 
volved in  the  tragic 
struggles  of  the  Scottish 
barons.  In  1515  he  was 
chosen  as  bishop  of 
Dunkeld.  After  release 
from  a  year's  imprison- 
ment he  was  one  of 
three  ambassadors  sent 
to  France.  Later  he 
was  sent  on  a  special 
mission  to  England, 
where  he  enjoyed  the 
friendship  of  the  famous 

Cardinal        Wolsey.         In 
i  coo    j.u  •          i,'   u 

1522,  the  year  in  which 
a  ship  first  sailed  around  the  globe,  Douglas  died  of  the 
plague  and  was  buried  in  London. 

In  some  respects  the  outline  of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress 
resembles  Douglas's  Police  of  Honour,  an  allegory  which 
represents  the  dangers  that  have  to  be  overcome  before  any 
one  can  attain  true  honor.  Douglas's  poem  contains 
allusions  to  the  themes  of  several  popular  ballads. 

King  Hart  is  another  allegory.  Descriptive  of  the  heart 
of  man,  its  plot  is  original,  although  the  names  of  some  of  the 
characters  first  appear  in  Piers  Plowman.  On  the  approach 
of  death  King  Hart  makes  his  will.  With  sly  humor  he 


From  an  old  print 
FIG.  34.  —  Dunkeld  Cathedral. 


THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD  101 

bequeaths  a  broken  shin  and  a  bruised  arm  to  his  page 
Nimbleness,  who  in  earlier  years  had  encouraged  his  royal 
master  to  play  football. 

This  broken  shin  that  swells  and  will  not  assuage, 

Ye  bear  to  him ;  he  brak  it  at  the  ball : 

And  say  to  him  that  it  shall  be  his  wage. 

This  bruised  arm  ye  bear  to  him  at  all  (as  well). 

—  Canto  II,  Stanza  63. 

When  Douglas  translated  Virgil's  JEneid  into  verse,  he 
was  the  first  to  present  a  great  ancient  classic  in  our  language. 
He  has  caught  the  spirit  of  the  New  Learning,  the  spirit  of 
the  Renaissance,  in  a  poem  which  does  credit  to  his  imagina- 
tion as  well  as  his  scholarship.  His  landscape  pictures, 
especially  in  the  prologues  to  Virgil's  books,  are  the  outcome 
of  his  own  observation.  Another  poet  calls  him,  "  In  our 
English  rhetoric  the  rose." 

Sir  Thomas  More  (1478-1535).  —  Like  Douglas,  Sir 
Thomas  More,  who  was  born  at  London  in  1478,  was 'a  good 
classical  scholar.  Educated  at  Oxford  and  elsewhere,  he 
gained  fame  as  a  man  of  letters  by  publishing  in  1516  a 
romance  called  Utopia  (Nowhere),  which  scarcely  belongs 
to  English  literature,  as  it  is  written  in  Latin.  Based  largely 
upon  Plato's  Republic,  More's  book  tells  about  an  imaginary 
island  whose  democratic  form  of  government  is  perfect.  No 
one  is  rich  and  no  one  is  poor,  because  all  things  are  shared 
alike  by  all.  Atheists  are  not  allowed  to  hold  public 
office. 

Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  (1503-1542).  —  At  the  beginning  of  this 
chapter  we  observed  that  the  New  Learning  had  its  birth 
in  Italy  during  the  fourteenth  century,  reaching  England 
through  her  universities,  as  seen  in  the  work  of  More  and 
others.  Through  her  poetry  Italy  now  directly  influenced 
English  literature,  aided  by  Sir  Thomas  Wyatt  and  his 


102  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

friend  Henry  Howard,  Earl  of  Surrey.  Both  men  had 
travelled  in  Italy  and  were  trained  to  appreciate  what  they 
saw  and  heard. 

Wyatt's  birthplace  was  near  Maidstone  in  Kent.  This 
graduate  of  Cambridge  was  well  liked  at  the  court  of  Henry 
VIII,  though  like  Douglas  he  was  for  a  time  a  political 
prisoner.  The  king  sent  Wyatt  on  several  missions  to  foreign 
countries,  where  he  gained  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  some  of 
Europe's  best  literature.  He  tried  to  put  Italian  forms  of 
Verse  into  English.  The  sonnet  was  one  of  the  poetic  types 
which  pleased  him  so  well  that  he  took  it  to  England.  All 
of  us  know  that  the  sonnet  is  limited  to  fourteen  lines,  each 
of  which  must  have  five  accented  syllables,  with  the  end- 
rimes  in  a  certain  order. 

Earl  of  Surrey  (i5i7?-i547).  —  Surrey's  name  is  remem- 
bered because  he  was  a  pioneer  in  writing  English  blank  verse. 
This  form  of  verse  is  blank  in  the  sense  that  it  has  no  end- 
rime.  In  each  line  are  five  beats  or  accents.  Surrey  was  an 
Oxford  graduate,  who  for  a  time  was  popular  with  Henry 
VIII.  In  the  war  with  France  he  served  with  distinction, 
yet  like  Sir  Thomas  More  he  lost  favor  and  was  beheaded. 
Sonnets  and  other  new  metres  he  wrote  during  leisure  hours, 
but  in  preparing  a  mode  of  expression  for  Marlowe  and  Shake- 
speare and  Milton,  he  achieved  much.  It  was  in  blank  verse 
that  Surrey  translated  part  of  Virgil's  Mneid,  some  of  his 
lines  being  based  upon  Douglas's  version. 

In  1557,  after  both  poets  were  dead,  a  printer  named 
Tottel  published  a  collection  of  verse  called  Tottel's  Mis- 
cellany, containing  the  work  of  various  authors.  This  was 
the  first  time  that  the  general  public  had  a  chance  of  seeing 
the  new  style  of  verse  composed  by  Wyatt,  Surrey,  and  other 
writers  of  less  consequence. 


THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD  103 

SUMMARY 

1.  The  Transition  period  marks  the  gradual  change  from 
medieval  to  modern  civilization.     One  of  the  chief  causes 
of  that  change  was  the  Revival  of  Learning,  which  implies 
a  deeper  appreciation  of  the  literary  and  social  value  of  the 
ancient  classics  of  Greece  and  Rome.     Humanism,  merely 
another    name    for    the    New  Learning,    suggests    that    a 
thorough  study  of  the  ancient  classics  makes  the  student 
more  human. 

2.  The  Revival  began  in  Italy,  largely  because  Venice  was 
the  chief  commercial  seaport  of  Europe,  and  therefore  most 
constantly  in  touch  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  while  Rome, 
as  the  headquarters  of  religion,  constantly  attracted  thought- 
ful men  of  different  nationalities.     Italians  began  to  take 
patriotic  pride  in  the  language  and  literature  of  the  ancient 
Romans,  who  had  received  most  of  their  culture  from  the 
Greeks. 

3.  Renaissance,  a  French  word  meaning  new  birth,  in- 
volves more  than  the  Revival  of  Learning.     The  revival  of 
interest  in  the  ancient  classics  extended  to   architecture, 
painting,  and  fine  art  in  general.     When  the  Revival  of 
Learning  began  to  affect  social  conditions,  when  it  had  taught 
men  to  exercise  reason  as  well  as  imagination,  it  came  to  be 
known  as  the  Renaissance. 

4.  Nothing  extended  the  influence  of  the  Renaissance  so 
speedily  as  the  invention  of  printing,  an  event  which  has 
transformed  the  world's  literature. 

5.  James  I  of  Scotland  found  time  to  write  The  Kingis 
Quair,  an  allegory  concerning  the  English  lady  who  became  his 
queen. 

6.  In   the  best  English  prose  of  the  fifteenth  century 
Malory's  Morte  d' Arthur,  based  mainly  on  French  romances, 
narrates  stories  about  King  Arthur  and  his  knights.     Caxton, 


104  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  earliest  of  English  printers,  published  the  works  of  Malory 
and  other  authors. 

7.  Pastoral  poetry  deals  with  shepherds  or  other  people 
living  in  the  country.     Henryson's  Robene  and  Makyne,  the 
earliest  of  British  pastorals,  is  one  of  the  most  natural  ever 
written.     His  fables  in  verse  are  humorous  and  instructive. 

8.  Aeroplanes  are  rare  even  now,  so  it  is  rather  surprising 
to  find  Dunbar,  the  most  brilliant  poet  of  his  age,  writing 
long  ago  about  a  man  who  tried  to  fly.     He  is  a  witty  writer, 
although  some  of  his  poems  are  serious  or  sentimental. 

9.  Douglas,  who  is  mentioned  in  Scott's  Marmion,  was 
the  first  man  in  Britain  to  translate  Virgil's  Mneid,  into  verse, 
enlarging  it  with  many  original  comments. 

10.  More's  Utopia  is  in  Latin  prose,  whereas  Wyatt  and 
Surrey  preferred  English  verse.     Wyatt  wrote  the  earliest 
English  sonnets,  and  Surrey  introduced  blank  verse. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  humanism?     Distinguish  between  the  Revival  of 
Learning  and  the  Renaissance.     Why  did  the  Revival  begin  in 
Italy? 

2.  State  the  purpose  of  The  Kingis  Quair.     Why  does  the  author 
refer  to  a  hound  ? 

3.  What  is  the  meaning  of  Morte  a"  Arthur?    How  did  Malory's 
own  experience  help  to  fit  him  to  write  such  a  book  ? 

4.  What  induced  Caxton  to  interest  himself  in  printing  ? 

5.  Who  wrote  the  earliest  pastoral  in  Britain  ?     Did  his  profes- 
sion help  or  hinder  him  in  the  composition  of  poetry  ? 

6.  Do  you  recall  any  of  the  birds  that  are  said  to  have  attacked 
the  Flying  Man  ?     What  is  your  opinion  of  Dunbar's  poems  ? 

7.  Which  of  Douglas's  works  alludes  to  popular  ballads  ?    What 
has  Douglas  to  say  about  football  ?    Why  should  he  be  remembered 
by  students  of  literature  ? 

8.  What  form  of  government  is  set  forth  in  More's  Utopia? 

9.  In   what   sense   may   Wyatt   and   Surrey   be   regarded   as 
pioneers  ? 


THE   TRANSITION  PERIOD  105 

ADDITIONAL   AUTHORS   WITH   CHIEF   WORKS 

Thomas  Occleve  (13707-14507),  To  Sir  John  Oldcastle;  John 
Lydgate  (1370?-1451  ?),  London  Lickpenuy;  Andrew  of  Wyntoun 
(1395?-1424?),  Chronicle  (in  verse);  Reginald  Pecock  (13957- 
1460),  The  Represser;  Richard  Holland  (flourished  1482),  Buke  of 
the  Howlat  (owl),  written  about  1450;  Henry  the  Minstrel  or  Blind 
Harry  (1430?-1492?),  Wallace,  written  about  1480;  John  K 


(14607-1529),  CoJm_£loyt;  Stephen  Hawes  (14757-1523),  Pastime 
of  Pleasure;  Alexander  Barclay  (1475  7-1  552),  Ship  of  Fools;  William 
Tyndale  (14907-1536),  The  Bible,  a  masterly  translation. 

; 
SUPPLEMENTARY   READING 

Besides  the  general  works  already  mentioned  in  previous  chapters, 
the  following  books  are  recommended  : 

a.   For  Classes 

E.  K.  Chambers,  English  Pastorals,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $1.00. 
G.  Eyre-Todd,  Mediceval  Scottish  Poetry,  Glasgow  (Hodge),  $1.00. 
Andrew  Lang,  Tales  of  the  Round  Table,  N.  Y.  (Longmans),  $.50. 
A.  T.  Martin,  Selections  from  Morte  d'  Arthur,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 

$.50. 

Howard  Pyle,  Story  of  the  Champions  of  the  Round  Table,  N.  Y. 
(Scribner's),  $2.00. 

b.   For  Teachers  and  Others 

W.  D.  Armes,  Utopia,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $.60. 

L.  Einstein,  Italian  Renaissance  in  England,  N.  Y.  (Lemcke  and 
'Buechner),  $1.50. 

W.  Pater,  The  Renaissance,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $2.00. 

A.  W.  Pollard,  Fifteenth  Century  Prose  and  Verse,  N.  Y.  (Dutton) 
and  Westminster  (Constable),  $1.25. 

G.  H.  Putnam,  Books  and  their  Makers  during  the  Middle  Ages. 
N.  Y.  (Putnam's),  2  vols.,  $2.50  ea. 

J.  E.  Sandys,  Harvard  Lectures  on  the  Revival  of  Learning,  N.  Y. 
(Putnam),  $1.50. 

F.  J.  Snell,  The  Age  of  Transition,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  2  vols., 
$1.00  ea. 

J.  A.  Symonds,  The  Revival  of  Learning,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $2.00. 
T.  G.  Tucker,   The  Foreign  Debt  of  English  Literature,  N.  Y, 
(Macmillan),  $1.50. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  EARLY  DRAMATIC  PERIOD 

IF  we  live  to  learn,  we  learn  to  live;  that  is,  we  learn  to 
get  the  best  out  of  life.  To  help  every  one  to  get  the  best 
out  of  life,  the  church  at  one  time  employed  the  drama. 
In  previous  pages  the  drama  has  not  been  discussed,  because 
it  seemed  better  to  glance  at  the  growth  of  the  early  English 
drama  in  a  single  chapter. 

What  is  Drama?  —  The  word  drama,  first  used  by 
the  ancient  Greeks,  means  action  or  performance.  Whether 
composed  in  verse  or  in  prose,  a  drama  is  a  story  usually 
intended  for  the  stage,  where  trained  persons  speak  and 
act  as  if  they  were  really  the  people  mentioned  in  the 
story. 

The  essence  of  drama  is  to  bring  out  the  clash  of  one  will 
with  another.  When  the  conflict  becomes  so  serious  that 
one  or  more  of  the  leading  characters  lose  their  lives,  the 
drama  is  called  a  tragedy.  When  the  conflict  ends  more  or 
less  pleasantly,  the  play  is  usually  called  a  comedy.  These 
are  the  two  chief  classes  of  dramatic  literature. 

Children's  Games.  —  Healthy  young  people  enjoy  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  play.  Once  in  a  while  even  older  people 
welcome  a  little  amusement  as  a  change  from  hard  work. 
In  all  countries,  even  among  the  Eskimos  of  the  frozen  north- 
land,  children  have  singing  games  accompanied  by  gestures 
or  action  of  some  sort.  All  over  the  world  primitive  tribes 
have  dance  songs  at  village  festivals  which  take  the  place  of 
our  schools,  churches,  and  theatres.  On  certain  days  of  the 

106 


THE  EARLY  DRAMATIC  PERIOD  107 

year  some  English  villages  still  have  outdoor  games  in  which 
the  people,  young  as  well  as  old,  tell  a  story  through  song 
and  action  or  pantomime.  Long  before  theatres  were  known, 
our  forefathers  had  games  or  festivals  open  to  everybody. 
Sometimes  these  festivals  were  religious,  at  other  times  they 
were  simply  for  amusement. 

The  Church  Service.  —  The  church  leaders  were  keen 
students  of  human  nature,  and  they  were  well  aware  of  the 
folk-dramas  or  village  festivals,  so  common  everywhere  in 
Europe.  When  Christianity  was  introduced  among  the 
Britons  and  afterward  among  the  Anglo-Saxons  of  England, 
the  church  service  was  usually  conducted  in  a  dignified 
manner,  because  the  priests  felt  that  the  worship  of  God 
should  be  impressive.  The  church  was  regarded  as  the  house 
of  God.  Hence  arose  noble  cathedrals  fitted  to  arouse  a 
sense  of  reverence  in  the  congregation.  The  celebration  of 
the  Lord's  Supper  was  known  as  the  Mass,  and  every  effort 
was  made  to  enhance  its  symbolism.  The  dramatization 
of  the  central  mystery  of  the  Christian  faith  was  effected  by 
action,  by  gesture,  and  by  music. 

Church  Drama.  —  It  was  during  Christmas  and  Easter, 
when  the  birth  and  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  were  com- 
memorated, that  the  church  ceremonies  became  more  dra- 
matic. During  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries  the  beginnings 
of  what  we  call  drama  became  more  or  less  apparent.  As 
the  clergy  chanted  responsively  the  Bible  lesson  in  Latin  and 
the  choir  burst  into  song  at  intervals,  the  whole  sacred  incident 
or  story  was  brought  before  the  people  at  public  worship. 
As  the  dramatic  element  increased,  naturally  the  people  were 
attracted  more  and  more.  Suitable  prologues  or  intro- 
ductions from  the  Old  Testament  were  introduced  at  the 
Christmas  ceremonies,  while  the  Easter  and  Ascension 
ceremonies  began  to  have  a  sequel  dealing  with  the  Day  of 
Judgment.  Finally  the  Christmas  and  Easter  ceremonies 


108  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

were  joined  so  as  to  form  a  religious  drama  that  set  forth  the 
principal  scenes  of  Bible  history  as  a  whole. 

Trade  Guilds.  —  It  was  not  until  the  fourteenth  century 
that  a  real  national  drama  began  to  appear  in  England.  By 
that  time  the  religious  pla}^s  had  become  so  popular  that  the 
churches  could  not  take  care  of  the  crowds,  and  performances 
had  to  be  given  in  the  streets.  In  most  towns  the  actors 
no  longer  were  priests,  but  tradesmen  or  members  of  trade 
guilds.  These  guilds  were  societies  of  men  engaged  in  the 
same  business,  such  as  masons,  grocers,  and  fishermen.  The 
guilds  exercised  great  power  in  the  cities.  When  the  mem- 
bers took  charge  of  the  mystery  plays,  as  the  Scriptural 
plays  were  called,  incidents  and  conversations,  sometimes  of 
an  amusing  nature,  were  introduced  to  make  the  Scripture 
scenes  look  more  like  scenes  of  everyday  life.  Plays  of  this 
character  are  known  to  have  been  acted  at  Aberdeen,  York, 
Chester,  and  in  many  other  places. 

Some  rough  fun  began  to  creep  into  the  mystery  plays, 
especially  when  Satan  and  some  of  the  less  important  figures 
of  the  Bible  were  mentioned.  Nevertheless  it  would  be  a 
great  mistake  to  interpret  either  the  intermingling  of  the 
tragic  and  the  comic,  or  the  occasional  vulgarity  of  the 
language,  as  indicating  general  corruption.  These  features 
suggest  an  undeveloped  rather  than  a  corrupt  society.  The 
English  people  were  morally  sound,  though  they  were  at  times 
coarse  in  habit  and  speech,  after  the  manner  of  the  time. 
The  grossnesswas  not  a  matter  of  character,  but  of  expression. 

Pageants.  —  The  simplest  sort  of  a  pageant  was  a  stage 
on  wheels,  although  later  the  term  pageant  implied  a  splendid 
show  or  parade  of  any  sort.  If  it  belonged  to  the  guild  of 
fishermen,  for  instance,  their  business  would  be  to  represent 
Noah  and  the  Ark,  or  any  Bible  scene  connected  with  the  sea. 
Usually  there  were  two  platforms,  the  upper  of  which  was  the 
real  stage,  the  lower  one  being  the  actors'  dressingroom. 


THE  EARLY  DRAMATIC  PERIOD 


109 


Everything  was  arranged  beforehand,  so  that  each  pageant 
knew  when  and  where  to  go.     The  first  pageant,  for  example, 


Front  an  old  print 


FIG.   35.  —  A  Chester  Pageant. 


might  represent  the  Creation  of  Man,  and  then  move  on  to 
the  second  stopping-place  where  the  same  act  was  repeated. 
Meantime  at  the  place  which  the  first  had  left,  the  second 


110  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

pageant  might  be  acting  the  slaying  of  Abel.  In  this  way 
at  certain  parts  of  the  town  every  one  had  a  chance  to  witness 
the  entire  set  or  cycle  of  plays.  For  more  than  two  centuries 
the  pageants  or  guild  plays  were  very  popular.  In  Shake- 
speare's boyhood  they  were  still  acted  at  Chester,  their  stage 
management  proving  of  great  use  to  the  regular  drama  of 
later  years. 

Mystery  Play  in  America.  —  Every  one  has  heard  of  the 
Passion  Play  which  attracts  visitors  from  many  lands  to 
Bavaria,  where  every  tenth  year  the  passion  or  suffering 
of  Jesus  on  the  cross  is  impressively  represented  by  the  vil- 
lagers of  Oberammergau.  Few,  even  in  America,  have  heard 
of  the  mystery  play  performed  in  New  England.  In  scene 
after  scene,  with  music  or  speech  accompanying  the  action, 
the  birth  of  Jesus  is  set  forth  dramatically  at  the  village  of 
Pomfret  in  Connecticut.  Catholics  and  Protestants  unite 
to  show  the  Christmas  spirit  of  good  will  toward  men,  con- 
ducting the  sacred  drama  with  becoming  dignity. 

Miracle  Plays.  —  Mystery  plays  are  based  upon  passages 
of  Scripture,  whereas  miracle  plays  deal  with  miracles  or 
wonderful  events  in  the  lives  of  saints  not  mentioned  in  the 
Bible.  Often,  of  course,  no  distinction  is  drawn  between 
mystery  and  miracle  plays.  The  earliest  miracle  or  saint's 
play  of  England,  the  play  of  St.  Katharine,  was  acted  about 
1100.  It  is  the  first  English  school  play  of  which  we  have 
any  record.  The  actors  were  schoolboys  trained  by  their 
master  Geoffrey,  who  was  the  author.  For  a  long  time  the 
miracle  play  appealed  to  the  people's  love  of  romance. 

Moral  Plays.  —  Moral  plays,  also  known  as  moralities  or 
morality  plays,  date  back  to  the  fourteenth  century.  They 
are  really  acted  allegories  enlivened  with  music  and  scenery. 
Mystery  plays  and  miracle  plays  have  religious  characters 
of  flesh  and  blood,  whereas  the  moral  plays  have  moral  or 
religious  types  such  as  are  familiar  to  readers  of  Bunyan's 


THE  EARLY  DRAMATIC  PERIOD  111 

Pilgrim 's  Progress.  Dealing  as  they  did  with  subjects  like 
the  Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed,  the  moralities  were  almost 
obliged  to  personify  the  virtues  and  the  vices  of  mankind. 
Although  allegory  is  common  enough  in  the  literature  of 
the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans,  yet  it  took  a  firmer  hold 
of  European  literature  during  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  original  purpose  of  the  three  forms  of  religious  drama 
was  to  give  the  unlettered  multitude  clearer  views  of  sacred 
story  and  belief.  Many  persons,  however,  crave  amusement 
as  well  as  education,  and  gradually  the  clergy  had  to  engage 
the  aid  of  others  to  satisfy  the  art  instincts  of  the  people, 
especially  in  the  larger  towns.  After  a  time  the  moral  plays 
adapted  themselves  to  the  popular  taste  by  introducing  comic 
scenes.  Eventually  these  plays,  as  they  grew  less  religious, 
became  more  fashionable  until  at  length  they  formed  one 
of  the  chief  inspirations  of  Elizabethan  comedy.  In  recent 
years  the  moral  play  of  Everyman  has  been  presented  with 
much  success  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

Interludes.  —  The  typical  interlude  is  a  short  farce  or 
comedy  acted  by  professional  players  at  a  formal  banquet 
given  by  a  person  of  distinction.  At  first  the  morality  plays 
were  used  as  interludes.  Gradually  an  interlude  became 
a  moral  play,  shortened  and  adapted  to  please  an  aristocratic 
audience. 

Stages  were  erected  in  the  halls  of  palaces,  castles,  colleges, 
or  in  open  spaces  of  towns.  A  glimpse  of  one  of  those  halls 
might  be  more  diverting  than  the  interlude.  There  you 
would  see  ladies  in  silk  and  velvet  robes,  glittering  with 
jewels  and  adorned  with  laces  and  feathers.  There  also  you 
would  see  the  courtiers  with  jewelled  swords  and  coats  of 
gay-colored  satin. 

Interlude  Writers.  —  Among  the  more  distinguished 
writers  of  interludes  were  Sir  David  Lyndsay  (1490-1555), 
born  near  Cupar  in  Fifeshire,  and  John  Heywood  (1497  ?- 


112 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


1580).  Lyndsay's  Satire  of  the  Three  Estates,  composed  in 
a  variety  of  metre,  seems  to  have  been  first  acted  before 
James  V  of  Scotland  at  Linlithgow  in  1540.  It  is  a  fearless 
political  play,  even  brilliant  in  places,  depicting  the  manners 
and  customs  of  the  period.  Heywood's  interludes  are  com- 
paratively short.  Much  of  his  material  is  borrowed  from 

France  and  from  earlier 
English  writers,  yet  his 
treatment  is  original  and 
often  amusing. 

Interlude  Players.  - 
Professional  actors  of  the 
sixteenth  century  had 
no  such  social  standing 
as  they  enjoy  to-day. 
After  the  destruction 
of  the  monasteries  by 
Henry  VIII  in  1536, 
mendicants,  homeless 
wanderers,  minstrels, 
strolling  players  of  all 
kinds,  began  to  be  re- 
garded with  suspicion. 
In  1563  the  Bishop  of 
London  described  players  as  "  an  idle  sort  of  people,  who 
have  been  infamous  in  all  good  communities/'  and  a  little 
later  it  was  enacted  that  all  players  who  were  not  servants 
of  barons  or  any  greater  lord  of  the  realm  should  be  pun- 
ished as  vagabonds.  The  result  was  that  every  company 
of  strolling  players  was  anxious  to  wear  the  livery  of  some 
nobleman,  so  that  they  might  be  able  to  earn  a  living  with- 
out annoyance. 

Interlude  players  were  sometimes  in  the  service  of  the  king 
or  the  queen.    The  children  or  schoolboys,  especially  of  St. 


From  Brandt's  "  Ship  of  Fools,"  1519  version 
FIG.  36.  —  Mendicants  on  their  Travels. 


THE  EARLY   DRAMATIC  PERIOD 


113 


Paul's,  acted  under  teachers  as  managers.     Undergraduates 
of  the  universities  also  acted,  at  first  in  Latin. 

The  Devil  and  the  Vice.  —  Serious  enough  is  the  Devil  of 
the  earlier  English  drama,  although  in  later  times  he  be- 
comes abusive  or  sarcastic.  In  the  moral  plays  he  is  neither 
witty  nor  sarcastic,  but 
simply  issues  orders  to  his 
agents,  the  Vices.  Moral 
plays  of  the  first  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century  have 
usually  no  Devil,  yet  he 
appears  on  the  stage  in  all 
kinds  of  plays  down  to 
Elizabethan  comedy. 

In  moral  plays  the  strug- 
gle is  for  possession  of  a 
human  soul,  the  represent- 
atives of  evil  being  the 
Seven  Deadly  Sins  —  anger, 
sloth,  etc.  —  with  their 
master,  the  Devil.  Out  of 
these  Sins  or  Vices  was 
created  an  allegorical  figure  called  the  Vice,  who  appears  in 
moral  plays  and  interludes.  The  Vice  is  chief  servant  of 
the  World,  the  Flesh,  and  the  Devil.  Finally  each  of  the 
Vices  represents  a  particular  sin,  whereas  the  Vice  embodies 
sins  in  general.  The  Vice  is  not  derived  from  the  Devil  of 
the  stage,  nor  does  he  always  wait  upon  him.  In  early 
drama  God's  adversary  is  a  fallen  archangel,  whereas  the 
Vice  typifies  human  frailty. 

Masques.  —  At  first  a  masque  was  a  story  told  not  in 
words,  but  through  the  actions  of  the  masked  or  disguised 
players,  who  are  sometimes  known  as  mummers.  That  is, 
it  was  a  sort  of  dumb  show  or  pantomime.  Like  the  inter- 


From  a  Trinity  College,  Cambridge  MS. 

FIG.  37.  —  The  Master  of  the  Seven 
Deadly  Sins. 


114 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


hide  it  was  played  before  aristocratic  audiences,  but  unlike 
the  interlude  it  had  at  first  no  professional  players.  The 
acting  was  performed  by  masked  ladies  and  gentlemen,  who 
posed  and  danced  in  splendid  costumes  for  the  private  enter- 
tainment of  their  friends.  Later  the  masques  assumed  a 


Harleian  MS. 


FIG.  38.  —  Court  Mummers. 


literary  form,  verses  being  used  to  make  the  meaning  of  the 
acting  more  definite. 

Latin  Influence  in  Comedy.  —  Plautus  and  Terence  were 
the  two  most  popular  writers  of  ancient  Latin  comedies. 
During  the  sixteenth  century  the  works  of  these  old  play- 
wrights were  among  the  texts  read  in  English  schools  and 
colleges.  In  the  original  Latin  some  plays  were  occasionally 
acted  by  students,  as  they  still  are  at  Westminster  School. 
The  interlude  had  developed  mainly  along  the  line  of  farce 


THE  EARLY  DRAMATIC  PERIOD  115 

or  comedy,  so  that  the  people  were  ready  to  appreciate  any 
amusing  play  which  they  could  understand. 

Nicholas  Udall  (1505-1556),  an  Oxford  man  who  for  a  time 
was  a  master  at  Eton,  wrote  a  riming  play  called  Ralph  Roister 
Doister.  Familiar  with  Plautus  as  well  as  with  the  needs  of 
the  English  stage,  Udall  divided  his  play  into  progressive 
acts  and  scenes,  in  this  way  greatly  improving  the  form  of 
English  drama.  He  also  introduced  a  more  refined  style  of 
comedy  after  the  old  Roman  models,  though  his  characters 
are  English.  Ralph  is  a  roisterer  or  noisy  blustering  person 
who  thinks  he  is  in  love  with  a  rich  widow,  and  also  is  vain 
enough  to  fancy  that  all  women  are  in  love  with  him. 

William  Stevenson,  who  was  born  at  Hunwick  in  Durham 
and  died  in  1575,  may  have  written  Gammer  Gurtoris  Needle, 
which  is  one  of  the  best-known  comedies  or  farces  of  its  time. 
The  actors  in  Udall's  play  were  probably  his  schoolboys; 
the  actors  in  this  play  were  students  of  a  Cambridge  college. 
Published  in  1575  this  comedy,  like  Udall's,  is  in  five  acts 
that  follow  the  Latin  rules.  Udall's  play  deals  with  life 
in  London,  while  Gammer  Gurton's  Needle  illustrates  the 
rougher  merriment  of  an  English  village.  The  gammer  or 
grandmother  of  the  play  has  lost  her  needle,  and  the  fun 
continues  until  it  is  found. 

Latin  Influence  in  Tragedy.  —  Good  tragedy  is  more  diffi- 
cult to  write  than  good  comedy.  Tragedy  calls  for  characters 
of  unusual  earnestness  and  strength  of  will  as  well  as  a  style 
that  fits  the  greatness  of  the  issue.  It  was  the  success  of  the 
imitations  of  Roman  comedy  that  led  scholarly  men  of 
letters  to  turn  their  attention  to  Roman  tragedy,  especially 
the  plays  of  Seneca,  who  was  tutor  of  the  Emperor  Nero. 
Only  a  select  number  of  people  at  first  cared  for  tragedy, 
and  it,  therefore,  retained  its  classical  features  far  longer 
than  comedy.  From  Seneca  came  the  ghost,  the  chorus,  and 
the  taste  for  unnatural  crime. 


116 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


The  earliest  English  tragedy  is  Gorboduc,  later  known  as 
Ferrex  and  Porrex.  Written  by  Th^mas^^rton_aiid_Thomas 
-Jjackvflle  (1536-1608),  Earl  of 
Dorset,  it  was  performed  before 
Queen  Elizabeth  in  1561.  It  is 
notable  as  the  first  English '  play 
composed  in  blank  verse.  Inas- 
much as  it  contains  pantomime, 
it  is  related  to  the  aristocratic 
masque.  Before  each  act  a  dumb 
show  foreshadows  what  is  to  fol- 
low. 

Gorboduc  suggests  Shake- 
speare's King  Lear.  He  is  sup- 
posed to  be  a  monarch  of  ancient 
Britain,  who  has  two  sons,  Ferrex 
and  Porrex.  He  gives  up  the  throne,  dividing  his  kingdom 
into  two  parts.  To  the  elder  son  he  grants  the  southern 
portion,  and  to  the  younger  the  northern.  The  poor  judg- 
ment of  the  king  eventually  brings  national  ruin. 


FIG.  39.  —  Thomas  Sackville. 


SUMMARY 

1.  In  early  days  when  most  people  could  neither  read  nor 
write,  the  priests  tried  to  teach  the  lessons  of  the  Bible  by 
the  aid  of  drama. 

2.  Drama,  which  means  action,  has  tragedy  and  comedy 
as   its   two   chief    branches.     Children's   games   sometimes 
resemble  dramas  because  they  tell  a  story  through  action  as 
well  as  words. 

3.  The  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper  readily  lends  itself 
to  dramatic  treatment.     Christmas  and  Easter  ceremonies 
led  to  the  formation  of  a  big  drama  that  set  forth  the  chief 
scenes  of  Bible  history. 


THE  EARLY  DRAMATIC  PERIOD  117 

4.  In  the  fourteenth  century  the  trade  guilds  began  to 
help  the  priests  in  those  religious  plays,  and  it  was  then  that 
such  figures  as  Satan  began  to  be  associated  with  rough 
merriment. 

5.  At  first  a  pageant  was  a  stage  on  wheels,  though  later 
the  term  implied  any  splendid  parade  or  show.     A  set  or 
series  of  plays  was  called  a  cycle. 

6.  Mystery  plays  had  scenes  from  the  Bible ;  miracle  plays 
dealt  with  miracles  or  wonders  in  the  lives  of  saints  not 
mentioned  in  the  Bible ;  moral  or  morality  plays  had  allegori- 
cal characters  such  as  Truth  or  Anger. 

7.  Interludes  were  short  plays  acted  by  professional  per- 
formers for  the  entertainment  of  rich  people.     Sir  David 
Lyndsay  and  John  Heywood  were  two  of  the  best  writers 
of  interludes.     Unless  they  wore  the  livery  of  some  gentle- 
man of  influence,  professional  players  were  apt  to  be  punished 
as  vagabonds. 

8.  Masques  were  plays  in  which  the  aristocratic  performers 
wore  a  mask  or  disguise  of  some  sort. 

9.  Following  the  style  of  Plautus,  Latin  scholars  began 
to  develop  English  comedy.     Of  early  comedies  those  best 
known  are  Udall's  Ralph  Roister  Doister  and  Stevenson's 
Gammer  Gurton's  Needle. 

10.  Those  who  tried  to  improve  English  tragedy  followed 
the  style  of  Seneca.     In  blank  verse  Norton  and  Sackville 
wrote  the  earliest  English  tragedy,  first  known  as  Gorboduc. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  drama?    What  is  its  object?    Why  did  the  early 
church  employ  it  ? 

2.  Distinguish  between  tragedy  and  comedy,  and  show  the  rela- 
tionship of  child  games  to  drama. 

3.  What  brought  about  the  formation  of  a  cycle  of  Scriptural 
plays  ?    Who  were  the  earliest  actors  in  such  plays  ? 


118  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

4.  In  what  way  did  the  trade  guilds  affect  the  growth  of  national 
drama  ? 

5.  Distinguish  between  mystery,  miracle,  and  morality  plays. 

6.  What  kind  of  plays  came  to  be  preferred  by  the  more  refined 
classes  of  society  ?    Do  you  recall  the  name  of  any  such  play  ? 

7.  In  what  manner  were  schoolboys  and  college  students  some- 
times connected  with  the  stage?     Can  you  give  an  example  of  a 
school  or  a  college  comedy  acted  in  the  sixteenth  century  ? 

8.  In  what  respects  did  the  study  of  Latin  improve  the  English 
stage  ? 

9.  Why  is  tragedy  harder  to  write  than  comedy  ?    How  was  early 
English  tragedy  related  to  the  masque  ? 

ADDITIONAL   AUTHORS   WITH   INTERLUDES 

Henry  Medwall,  Nature  (written  prior  to  1500) ;  John  Rastell, 
Nature  of  the  Four  Elements  (printed  in  1519) ;  John  Bale  (1495- 
1563),  King  John.  Bale  was  Bishop  of  Ossory  in  Ireland.  One 
or  two  of  his  plays  were  acted  at  Kilkenny.  L.  Wager,  Marie 
Magdalene  (printed  1566) ;  Thomas  Ingeland,  The  Disobedient 
Child  (acted  1560) ;  Nathaniel  Woods,  The  Conflict  of  Conscience 
(written  1563?). 

SUPPLEMENTARY   READING 

Besides  the  works  mentioned  in  the  earlier  chapters,  some  of  the 
best  books  in  English  for  teachers  and  others  are : 

K.  L.  Bates,  English  Religious  Drama,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.50. 

C.  F.  T.  Brooke,  Tudor  Drama,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $1.50. 

E.  K.  Chambers,  Mediaeval  Stage,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press),  2  vols., 
<R7  p;n 

«]pi  .OU. 

H.  E.  Evans,  English  Masques,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $1.00. 
C.  M.  Gayley,  Representative    English   Comedies,  N.  Y.   (Mac- 
millan), 2  vols.,  Vol.  I,  $2.00. 
S.  B.  Hemingway,  English  Nativity  Plays,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  $2.00. 

C.  H.  Herford,  Studies  in  the  Literary  Relations  of  England  and 
Germany  (16th  century),  N.  Y.  (Putnam's),  $2.50. 

D.  Laing,  Lyndsay's  Poetical  Works,  Edinburgh  (Paterson). 

W.  R.  Mackenzie,  English  Moralities  from  the  Point  of  View  of 
Allegory,  Bost.  (Ginn),  $2.00. 

J.  M.  Manly,  Specimens  of  the  Pre-Shakespearean  Drama,  Bost. 
(Ginn),  2  vols.,  $1.25  ea. 


THE  EARLY  DRAMATIC  PERIOD  119 

Brander  Matthews,  The  Development  of  the  Drama,  N.  Y.  (Scrib- 
ner's),  $1.25. 

A.  W.  Pollard,  Miracle  Plays,  etc.,  5th  ed.,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press), 
$1.90. 

F.  E.  Schelling,  Elizabethan  Drama,  Bost.  (Houghton),  2  vols., 
$3.50. 

L.  T.  Smith,  York  Plays,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press),  $6.75. 

J.  A.  Symonds,  Shakespeare's  Predecessors,  etc.,  N.  Y.  (Scribner), 
$2.00. 

A.  H.  Thorndike,  Tragedy,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $1.50. 

A.  W.  Ward,  History  of  English  Dramatic  Literature,  2d  ed.,  N.  Y. 
(Macmillan),  3  vols.,  $9.00.  (To  death  of  Queen  Anne.) 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   SHAKESPEAREAN   PERIOD 

1564-1616 

"  LAND  !  "  was  the  signal  of  a  Spanish  seaman  on  board 
the  Pinta  at  two  o'clock  of  an  October  morning  in  1492.  It 
was  Columbus,  a  daring  Italian  captain,  who  piloted  three 
small  Spanish  vessels  across  the  unknown  Atlantic  to  an 
island  which  he  fittingly  called  San  Salvador,  Holy  Savior. 
Thirty  years  after  America  was  discovered,  £,  Portuguese  ship 
had  sailed  round  the  globe. 

Love  of  Adventure.  —  The  desire  for  new  lands  to  conquer, 
the  craving  for  adventure,  has  lured  many  a  bold  man  since 
those  days,  and  still  a  few  parts  of  the  globe  remain  unknown 
and  uncharted.  The  gold  mines  of  some  of  the  American 
tribes  soon  made  Spain  the  richest  country  in  Europe.  In 
1577  Drake,  an  English  seaman,  sailed  round  the  world, 
returning  with  much  Spanish  gold  to  England,  where  he  was 
knighted  by  Queen  Elizabeth.  In  1586  Cavendish  made  a 
voyage  round  the  world,  plundering  Spanish  treasure-ships 
with  the  same  success  as  Drake.  Two  years  later  a  Spanish 
fleet,  known  as  the  Armada,  sought  revenge  against  Cavendish, 
Drake,  and  others  in  the  English  Channel.  Events  of  this 
nature  were  bound  to  quicken  the  pulse  and  stir  the  imagina- 
tion of  our  European  forefathers. 

As  one  of  the  results  of  the  Renaissance  the  old  Latin 
comedies  of  Terence  and  Plautus  were  serving  as  models  for 
every  playwright  of  western  Europe.  Coloring  these  plots 

120 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  121 

came  the  love  of  adventure,  which  is  another  phrase  for  love 
of  romance.  In  England  this  blend  of  romance  with  comedy 
first  bears  fruit  through  the  dramas  of  Lyly  and  Greene. 

Religious  Changes.  —  When  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  had 
ceased  in  1486,  the  power  of  the  English  nobles  had  been 
crippled.  Some  of  the  impoverished  barons  had  to  sell 
part  of  their  lands  to  merchants  who  had  made  money  in 
trade,  and  in  this  way  arose  what  are  generally  called  the 
middle  classes  of  society.  Henry  VII  (1485-1509)  did  not 
have  to  consider  the  wishes  of  influential  noblemen,  and  his 
son  Henry  VIII  became  practically  an  absolute  monarch, 
that  is,  his  will  was  law.  In  1521  the  latter  wrote  a  book 
against  Luther,  the  leader  of  those  who  were  dissatisfied 
with  the  church  in  Germany.  Thirteen  years  later,  thirty 
years  before  Shakespeare  was  born,  Henry  declared  himself 
to  be  the  head  of  the  church  in  England.  Within  four  years 
more  than  seven  hundred  monasteries  and  colleges  were 
annexed  to  the  crown,  and  many  of  the  valuable  libraries 
were  destroyed.  Trouble  continued  for  many  a  long 
year.  Naturally  the  religious  and  political  changes  tended 
to  bring  some  changes  into  English  literature. 

1.   NON-DRAMATIC   WRITINGS 

During  the  first  twenty  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  (1558- 
1603)  no  book  of  much  consequence  was  composed  either  in 
prose  or  in  verse.  By  sheer  force  of  talent  earlier  writers 
like  Malory  had  once  in  a  while  produced  good  prose,  but 
the  truth  is  that  English  prose  was  usually  a  rather  awkward 
imitation  of  Latin  or  some  other  language.  For  centuries 
Latin  had  been  regarded  as  the  language  in  which  an  educated 
gentleman  should  write,  and  many  experiments  had  to  be 
made  by  writers  now  scarcely  known,  before  English  prose 
acquired  the  ease  or  naturalness  of  verse. 


122  ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 

Ascham  and  Lyly.  —  The  prose  of  men  who  thought  in 
Latin  and  wrote  in  plain  English  is  well  illustrated  by  such 
a  work  as  the  Schoolmaster  of  Roger  Ascham  (1515-1568), 
a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Cambridge.  A  strong  con- 
trast to  Ascham  is  John  Lyly  (1554?-!  606),  an  Oxford 
graduate.  Lyly's  Euphues,  published  in  1572,  is  written  in 
a  fanciful  affected  style  that  seems  to  follow  Spanish  models. 
For  instance,  Lady  Flavia  says, 

It  is  time  that  you  break  off  your  speech,  lest  we  have 
nothing  to  speak,  for  should  you  wade  any  farther,  you  would 
both  waste  the  night  and  leave  us  no  time,  and  take  our 
reasons,  and  leave  us  no  matter  ;  that  everyone  therefore 
may  say  somewhat,  we  command  you  to  cease. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  Lyly's  Euphues  was  one  of  the 
most  successful  books  ever  written  in  English,  and  its  ornate 
style  became  the  fashion  with  Elizabeth  and  her  literary 
court.  In  Low's  Labour's  Lost  and  in  the  first  part  of 
Henry  IV  Shakespeare  makes  some  clever  hits  at  what  is 
often  called  Euphuism. 

SIR  PHILIP  SIDNEY  (1554-1586) 

Outline  of  his  Career.  —  Sidney  is  one  of  the  noblest  and 
most  attractive  characters  in  the  literary  history  of  Europe. 
After  attending  Oxford  he  completed  his  education  by  travel- 
ling on  the  continent.  When  he  returned  to  England,  he 
was  presented  to  Elizabeth  by  his  uncle,  the  Earl  of  Leicester, 
the  Queen's  chief  favorite.  Those  who  have  read  Scott's 
Kenilworth  will  have  some  idea  of  what  Sidney  witnessed 
when  he  was  present  at  the  royal  festivities.  Every  one  is 
familiar  with  the  closing  scene  in  the  career  of  this  ideal 
gentleman,  who  was  beloved  by  the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich. 

The  English  were  besieging  Zutphen  in  the  Netherlands, 
which  at  that  time  belonged  to  Spain.  In  the  mist  of  a 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD 


123 


September  morning  of  the  year  1586  an  army  of  Spaniards 
arrived  to  relieve  the  town.  Sidney  performed  many  feats 
of  valor  in  the  battle  that  followed.  While  leading  a  cavalry 
charge  against  a  superior  force,  he  was  mortally  wounded  by 
a  musket  bullet  from  the 
Spanish  trenches,  and  he  fell 
from  his  war-horse.  He  had 
asked  for  water,  a  luxury 
hard  to  obtain  on  a  battle- 
field. He  was  about  to  raise 
the  cup  to  his  lips,  when  he 
saw  the  eyes  of  a  dying 
soldier  fixed  upon  it  long- 
ingly. "  Thy  necessity  is 
greater  than  mine,"  said 
Sidney,  and  without  even 
tasting  the  precious  liquid, 
he  handed  the  cup  to  his 
suffering  comrade.  It  was 
chivalry  of  this  sort  that 
gave  Sidney  a  reputation  as 
a  man  which  has  lasted  for 
more  than  three  hundred 
years. 

The  Arcadia.  —  It  is  his 
prose  rather  than  his  sonnets  and  other  poems  that  gives 
Sidney  a  place  in  literary  history.  None  of  his  verse  or 
prose  was  printed  till  after  his  death,  although  he  had  a 
reputation  as  a  writer  during  his  lifetime  through  the  cir- 
culation of  his  works  in  manuscript  form. 

The  Arcadia,  of  which  a  copy  was  published  in  1590,  was 
written  to  please  his  sister.  It  is  a  romance  of  chivalry  in 
the  pastoral  style  that  was  fashionable  in  Spain.  The  lyrics, 
printed  along  with  the  prose  of  the  Arcadia,  are  translations 


/v 

;W>A . 

FIG.  40.  —  Sir  Philip  Sidney. 


124  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

from  Spanish.  Sidney's  shepherds  are  merely  gentlemen 
like  himself,  "  princely  shepherds/'  as  he  calls  them.  Arcadia 
is  a  land  that  exists  only  in  the  writer's  fancy,  and  although 
the  book  has  no  definite  plot,  it  contains  some  fine  descrip- 
tions. According  to  our  modern  taste  the  sentences  are  too 
long,  but  terseness  was  not  a  characteristic  of  the  age  in 
which  Sidney  lived. 

Apologie  for  Poetrie.  —  In  1595  appeared  Sidney's  Apologie 
for  Poetrie,  wherein  he  holds  that  the  main  purpose  of  poetry 
is  "  to  lead  and  draw  us  to  as  high  a  perfection  as  our  de- 
generate souls,  made  worse  by  their  clay  lodgings,  can  be 
capable  of."  In  discussing  the  various  kinds  of  poetry  he 
says  of  current  Comedy  that  "  naughty  play-makers  and 
stage-keepers  have  made  it  justly  odious."  Sidney  also 
laughs  in  a  good-natured  way  at  the  "  swelling  phrases  " 
of  Lyly  and  the  men  who  wrote  verses  in  the  belief  that  they 
were  true  poets.  The  book  as  a  whole  has  no  little  sincerity 
and  freshness  of  outlook. 

Experiments  in  Verse.  —  In  the  sixth  chapter  we  observed 
that  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII  Surrey  and  Wyatt  had  made 
use  of  Italian  metres,  although  Italy  was  too  far  away  to 
influence  England  as  strongly  as  she  influenced  France  and 
Spain.  The  New  Learning,  with  its  lively  appreciation  of 
Greek  and  Latin  models,  enticed  many  a  man  to  produce 
translations  or  to  attempt  imitations  in  verse  after  the  style 
of  the  ancient  classics.  Many  of  those  experiments  in  verse 
were  dull  and  are  now  almost  forgotten,  yet  they  were  not 
without  value.  Neither  Julius  Caesar  nor  Napoleon  could 
have  won  a  single  battle  without  the  help  of  men  whose 
names  are  no  longer  remembered.  By  showing  the  new 
possibilities  of  the  inother  tongue  the  efforts  of  the  less  im- 
portant writers  prepared  the  way  for  success  in  drama  as 
well  as  in  other  forms  of  literature.  People  of  refinement 
had  been  studying  poetry,  and  they  were  ready  to  welcome 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD 


125 


a  really  good  poet,  as  Sidney  and  his  friend  Spenser  dis- 
covered. 

EDMUND  SPENSER  (1552?-1599) 

Spenser  had  abundance  of  good  sense.  Well  did  he  know 
the  value  of  a  thorough  education,  so  we  are  sure  he  was 
jesting  when  he  asked  - 

Why  did  my  parents  send  me  to  the  schools, 

That  I  with  knowledge  might  enrich  my  mind, 
Since  the  desire  to  learn  first  made  men  fools  ? 


Spenser's  Career.  —  Tasso, 
the  great  epic  poet  of  Italy, 
was  a  boy  of  eight  when 
Edmund  Spenser  was  born  in 
London,  probably  in  1552. 
His  youth  was  passed  in  an 
England  clouded  by  religious 
disputes.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-four  he  left  Cam- 
bridge with  a  master's  degree. 
Later  he  was  introduced  to 
Sir  Philip  Sidney,  whose 
friendship  led  Spenser  to  ded- 
icate to  him  the  Shepherd's 
Calendar. 

In  1580,  Spenser  was  ap- 
pointed secretary  to  Grey,  the 
Lord-Lieutenant  of  Ireland. 
Six  years  later  the  poet  re- 
ceived 3000  acres  of  confis- 
cated land  in  Countv  Cork  as 


FIG.  41.  —  Edmund  Spenser. 


well  as  Kilcolman  Castle,   situated    between  Mallow  and 
Limerick.     Among  "  the  green  alders  by  the  Mulla's  shore  " 


126 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


he  wrote  much  of  the  Faerie  Queene.  Hither  on  a  visit  to 
his  Irish  estates  came  the  brilliant  Walter  Raleigh,  then  a 
captain  in  the  Queen's  Guard.  Spenser  read  the  first  three 
books  of  the  Faerie  Queene  to  Raleigh,  who  was  so  pleased 
that  he  induced  the  poet  to  return  with  him  to  London.  The 
voyage  is  described  in  a  poem  where  Raleigh  figures  as  the 
"  Shepherd  of  the  Ocean."  Spenser  was  presented  to  Eliza- 
beth by  Raleigh,  and  when  the  first  part  of  Spenser's  master- 
piece was  published  in  1590,  it  made  him  instantly  famous. 

The  poet  sailed  back  to  Ireland,  and  in  1594  he  married. 
The  outcome  was  a  number  of  sonnets  as  well  as  the  Epitha- 

lamion,  the  noblest  mar- 
riage ode  in  our  language. 
In  1596  he  crossed  to 
England  in  order  to  pub- 
lish the  second  part  of 
his  masterpiece  and  re- 
turned to  the  castle  in 
the  southeast  of  Ireland. 
Kilcolman  Castle  over- 
looked a  beautiful  lake, 
set  like  a  gem  in  a  plain 
encircled  by  mountain 
ranges.  In  the  autumn 
of  1598  the  poet  was 
driven  out  of  the  former 
castle  of  the  Earl  of 
Desmond.  Only  a  few  weeks  later  in  London  Spenser  died 
impoverished,  too  proud  to  accept  the  gold  offered  him  by 
Lord  Essex.  The  poet  was  laid  to  rest  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

The  Shepherd's  Calendar.  —  In  1579  Spenser  published 
his  Shepherd's  Calendar,  wherein  the  whole  of  England  is 
supposed  to  be  a  sort  of  sheep  farm  under  the  sway  of  "  Fair 


FIG.  42. —  Kilcolman  Castle. 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  127 

Eliza,"  daughter  of  Pan,  the  ancient  classic  god  of  shepherds. 
It  is  a  series  of  twelve  pastoral  poems,  one  for  each  month. 
Professing  to  be  inspired  by  Virgil  and  the  Italian  pastorals, 
the  Shepherd's  Calendar  is  clearly  traceable  to  the  same 
Spanish  book  that  aided  Sidney  with  his  Arcadia.  In  the 
form  of  allegory,  _rich  in  fancy,  the  poet  introduces  the 
questions  of  the  day  in  a  variety  of  wonderfully  melodious 
verse.  Here  are  two  lines  worth  memorizing : 

For  he  that  strives  to  touch  a  star 
Oft  stumbles  at  a  straw.  —  99-100. 

Plan  of  the  Faerie  Queene.  - 

Arrived  there,  the  little  house  they  fill, 

Ne  looke  for  entertainment  where  none  was  ; 
Rest  is  their  feast,  and  all  things  at  their  will. 
The  noblest  mind  the  best  contentment  has. 
With  faire  discourse  the  evening  so  they  pas ; 
For  that  olde  man  of  pleasing  wordes  had  store 
And  well  could  file  his  tongue  as  smooth  as  glas : 
He  told  of  Saintes  and  Popes,  and  evermore 

He  strowed  (strewed)  an  Ave-Mary  (prayer)  after  and  before. 

—  Canto  I,  Stanza  35. 

The  foregoing  stanza  is  from  the  first  canto  of  the  first  book 
of  Spenser's  Faerie  Queene.  This  work  of  genius  is  not  an 
epic  Jbut  an  allegorical  romance  concerning  the  state  of  Eng- 
land, Ireland,  and  the  Continent  during  Elizabeth's  reign. 
The  poet  intended  to  write  twelve  books  or  sections  of  the 
Faerie  Queene,  but  like  Chaucer  he  was  unable  to  complete 
his  plan. 

Whateverjmii}L4he  six  books  of  the  poem  possess  is  due 
to  the  conflicts-Good,  as  Spenser  conceived  it^against  Evil. 
Each  virtue  is  personified  by  a  knight,  whose  adventures 
shall  teach  it  by  example.  Arthur  represents  all  "  private 
virtues."  The  Red  Cross  Knight,  who  stands  for  Holiness, 


128  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

is  wearing  the  armor  described  by  St.  Paul,  the  same  armor 
with  which  Bunyan  in  later  years  equips  Christian  as  well 
as  Greatheart.  Spenser  urges  that  it  is  the  poet's  business 
to  strive  for  "  the  winning  of  the  mind  from  wickedness  to 
virtue." 

It  is  the  Red  Cross  Knight  who  is  the  hero  in  the  adventure 
of  the  first  and  finest  book.  Following  a  suggestion  of  the 
Italian  epic  of  Tasso,  Sir  Guyon  or  Temperance  is  the  chief 
figure  in  the  second  book.  The  third  book  contains  some 
exquisite  pictures  of  womanhood,  colored  with  the  radiance  of 
poetic  fancy. 

In  addition  to  its  moral  scheme  the  poem  has  a  political 
meaning.  The  Faerie  Queene  is,  first,  Glory  in  general.  In 
the  next  place  she  is  Gloriana,  the  "  most  virtuous  and  beauti- 
ful "  Queen  Elizabeth.  Arthur,  the  type  of  a  true  knight, 
sees  the  vision  of  the  Queen,  whom  he  resolves  to  follow  to 
Fairyland.  Arthur  is  really  the  Earl  of  Leicester. 

Written  at  Intervals.  —  In  estimating  the  work  of  Spenser 
we  must  remember  that  Elizabeth  enjoyed  a  certain  amount 
of  flattery,  and  he  was  politic  enough  to  try  to  win  her  favor. 
He  never  enjoyed  the  peaceful  leisure  of  a  Tennyson  or  a 
Browning.  Most  of  his  poetry  and  prose  was  written  during 
the  eighteen  years  that  he  spent  as  an  official  of  the  English 
government  in  war-smitten  Ireland.  No  wonder  the  Faerie 
Queene  seems  at  times  to  be  disconnected,  for  its  author  had 
to  compose  it  at  intervals.  During  the  first  two  books  the 
course  of  the  allegory  runs  clear,  and  then  it  becomes  con- 
fused. In  spite  of  this  the  poem  may  be  enjoyed  simply  as 
a  poem.  Often  it  is  better  to  ignore  the  hidden  meanings. 
.Spenser's  true  ideal  is  Beauty,  the  hidden  beauty  of  the  world 
in  which  we  live  or  the  world  of  which  we  dream.  It  is  the 
gleam  of  Beauty  that  he  follows  as  he  wanders  with  ladies 
and  knights  through  enchanted  forests  with  their  dragons, 
dwarfs,  and  other  marvels  of  poetic  Fairyland. 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  129 

Spenserian  Metre.  —  The  Spenserian  stanza  with  its 
three  rimes,  a  specimen  of  which  has  already  been  given, 
contains  nine  lines  with  five  accented  syllables  in  each  line, 
except  thenmtn,  which  has  six  stressed  syllables,  it  is  the 
poet's  own  invention.  Its  cadence  has  be'e'll  Compared  to 
the  swelling  wave  of  a  summer  sea  as  it  sweeps  onward  - 
a  green  transparent  wall  —  until  it  breaks  upon  the  pebbly 
shore  in  long  and  measured  flow.  Byron  and  other  poets 
have  proved  the  power  of  the  majestic  Spenserian  stanza. 

Its  Value  For  Us.  —  It  is  not  ideas  but  ideals  that  promote 
the  progress  and  happiness  of  the  human  race,  and  no  poet 
is  more  idealistic  than  Spenser.  Ideas  are  but  steps  in 
the  ladder  of  progress  upward  to  the  ideal.  Like  Longfellow 
in  his  Excelsior,  Spenser  deals  with  things  that  are,  in  order 
to  help  us  toward  what  ought  to  be.  Poetry  is  of  value  so 
far  as  it  fixes,  in  forms  of  immortal  beauty,  whatever  intelli- 
gent people  are  capable  of  feeling. 

To-day  many  people  care  little  for  allegory,  and  the  result 
is  that  Spenser  is  not  read  so  much  as  his  genius  warrants. 
In  order  to  make  his  verse  more  impressive  and  dignified 
he  purposely  uses  many  old-fashioned  words,  and  this  is 
another  reason  why  he  is  not  so  popular  as  other  poets  of  less 
ability.     The  fact  remains,  however,  that  Spenser -has-prob-    j 
ably  inspired  more  poets    than  any  other    man  who  ever    j 
wrote  in  English.     By  the  magic  of  hJgjrH'H yv^^a  perfection    j 
of  his  metre,  and  the  force  of  his  imagination  he  made  an 
enchanted  world  out  of  this  solid  earth. 

Four  brief  extracts  may  serve  to  show  the  gems  that  await 
patient  readers  of  the  Faerie  Queene  : 

Let  me  you  entrete 

For  to  unfold  the  anguish  of  your  hart  ; 
Mishaps  are  mastered  by  advice  discrete, 
And  counsell  mitigates  the  greatest  smart.  . 

-  Bk.  I,  Canto  7. 


130 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


And  when  she  spake, 

Sweete  wordes,  like  dropping  honey,  she  did  shed ; 
And  twixt  the  pearls  and  rubies  softly  brake 
A  silver  sound,  that  heavenly  musicke  seem'd  to  make. 

—  Bk.  II,  Canto  3. 

True  is,  that  whilome  (once)  that  good  poet  sayd, 
The  gentle  minde  by  gentle  deeds  is  knowne, 
For  a  man  by  nothing  is  so  well  bewray 'd 
As  by  his  manners,  in  which  plaine  is  showne 
Of  what  degree  and  what  race  he  is  growne. 

-  Bk.  VI,  Canto  3. 

FRANCIS  BACON  (1561-1626) 

York  House,  one  of  the 
finest  mansions  in  London, 
was  the  childhood  home  of 
Francis  Bacon.  His  father 
was  a  man  of  influence  at 
the  court  of  Elizabeth,  and 
his  mother  was  the  sister-in- 
law  of  Cecil,  Lord  Burleigh, 
the  queen's  chief  adviser. 
For  a  time  he  was  a  student 
at  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge. From  France  he 
returned  home  in  1579  on 
account  of  the  death  of  his 
father.  He  studied  law  and 
was  called  to  the  bar  in  1582. 
Two  years  later  he  entered 

FIG.  43. -Francis  Bacon.  Parliament,  where  he  soon 

distinguished   himself    as  a 

public  speaker.     When  the  queen  turned  against  one  of  her 
favorites,  the  rash  Earl  of  Essex,  Bacon  led  in  his  prosecu- 


From  painting  by  Paul  von  Somer.   National 
Portrait  Gallery 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  131 

tion  for  treason.  Unpleasant  indeed  must  have  been  such 
a  task,  for  Essex  had  been  a  loyal  and  generous  friend  of 
Bacon. 

Bacon's  highest  political  honors  and  practically  all  of  his 
literary  work  belong  to  the  reign  of  James  I.  By  the  year 
1618  he  had  become  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  England  with 
the  title  of  Baron  Verulam.  He  was  Viscount  of  St.  Alban's 
in  1621.  That  very  year  his  political  foes  accused  him  of 
taking  bribes.  He  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  £40,000 
and  to  be  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  of  London  during  the 
king's  pleasure.  James  generously  remitted  the  fine  and 
set  the  ruined  lawyer  free. 

It  is  not  easy  to  be  fair  toward  all  our  own  acquaintances. 
It  is  still  less  easy  to  be  just  toward  a  man  who  lived  three 
hundred  years  ago.  Bacon  possessed  one  of  the  keenest 
minds  in  Europe,  yet  his  great  intellect  and  his  knowledge 
of  the  world  failed  to  save  him  from  disgrace.  What  led 
to  this  tragedy?  He  was  not  a  bad  man,  but  he  had  one 
life-long  weakness  —  extravagance.  He  lived  beyond  his 
means,  and  he  died  in  debt. 

Bacon's  Essays.  —  To-day  Bacon  is  best  known  through 
his  Essays,  a  form  of  prose  which  first  appeared  in  the  French 
writings  of  Montaigne.  Any  one  who  has  a  taste  for  politics 
will  enjoy  Bacon's  essays.  Even  if  we  care  nothing  about 
politics,  these  fifty-eight  sketches  are  well  worth  reading 
because  they  were  written  by  a  man  who  had  a  shrewd 
knowledge  of  mankind.  With  many  touches  of  dry  humor 
Bacon  tells  much  in  few  words,  and  so  compressed  is  his  style 
that  it  is  at  times  a  little  difficult  for  beginners.  They  are 
probably  the  most  concise  essays  ever  written  in  English  or  in 
any  other  language. 

The  New  Atlantis.  —  Blown  out  of  its  course,  a  ship  is 
steered  through  strange  waters.  An  unknown  land  looms 
out  of  the  horizon.  It  turns  out  to  be  Bensalem,  a  place  not 


132  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

marked  upon  any  map.  Far  apart  its  inhabitants  "  dwell 
in  the  midst  of  the  wash  of  the  waves."  The  kindly  people 
have  founded  an  ideal  university  called  Solomon's  House, 
an  institution  far  superior  to  any  European  university.  The 
people  desire  Light,  the  light  of  knowledge/rather  than  wealth. 
More  called  his  ideal  country  Utopia.  Bacon  calls  this  one 
the  New  Atlantis.  It  reminds  him  of  the  old  Atlantis  men- 
tioned by  Plato,  a  land  that  had  disappeared  from  the 
knowledge  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  New  Atlantis,  an 
unfinished  romance,  ranks  in  popularity  next  to  the  Essays. 
Other  Works.  —  In  English  Bacon  wrote  The  Advancement 
of  Learning  and  a  History  of  Henry  VII.  The  former  is 
a  sort  of  introduction  to  Bacon's  idea  of  how  to  promote 
human  knowledge.  His  Novum  Organum,  which  means  New 
Instrument,  that  is,  new  means  or  method  of  learning,  is  in 
Latin.  At  that  time  Latin  was  read  and  spoken  by  most 
European  scholars.  This  work  explains  the  inductive 
method  of  reasoning.  In  other  words,  it  shows  that  Bacon 
believed  in  the  method  of  experiment  with  a  view  to  finding 
out  the  real  facts. 

2.  DRAMATIC  WRITINGS 

Spanish  Influence  in  England.  —  During  Elizabeth's  reign 
the  Spanish  nation  surpassed  all  other  nations  in  political 
power,  and  it  possessed  a  vigorous  native  drama.  Frequently 
the  natural  pride  of  the  Spaniards  was  represented  in  other 
countries  as  boastfulness  or  insolence.  Spanish  braggarts 
and  cowards  are  by  no  means  rare  on  the  Elizabethan  stage. 
Through  translations  Spanish  literature  was  bound  to  leave 
some  impress  upon  English  writers.  At  times  the  framework 
of  a  Spanish  story  was  borrowed  and  clothed  with  English 
feeling.  Spain  was  enjoying  her  heroic  age,  and  it  may  have 
been  her  imperial  ideals  rather  than  her  literature  that  made 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD 


133 


a  profound  impression   upon   the   national    aspirations  of 
England. 

The  First  English  Theatre.  —  In  1576,  twenty-three  years 
before  the  Globe  Theatre  was  erected  south  of  the  river 
Thames,  the  first  English  playhouse  was  built  by  James 
Burbage,  whose  son  Richard  was  a  close  friend  of  Shake- 


Copyrlght 
FIG.  44. —  Shakespeare's  Globe  Theatre,  burned  down  in  1613. 

speare.  The  Common  Council  of  London,  inclined  to  be 
Puritanic,  made  it  difficult  to  perform  public  plays  within 
the  city.  Burbage,  who  was  a  carpenter  or  joiner  before  he 
became  an  actor,  built  a  circular  wooden  theatre  at  Shore- 
ditch  outside  the  city  limits.  As  an  actor  he  had  often 
been  in  the  chambers  and  halls  of  noblemen  and  in  the 
inn-yards.  His  notion  of  decoration  came  from  the  baronial 
halls,  and  the  galleries  of  this  theatre  were  modelled  after 


134  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

those  of  the  inns.  The  Theatre,  as  he  called  it,  would  be  its 
own  advertisement.  It  could  be  easily  seen  from  Finsbury 
Fields,  where  archers  engaged  in  target  practice,  lads  played 
games,  and  maidservants  bleached  the  family  washing. 

Do  you  see  the  playhouse  flag  being  hoisted  ?  The  per- 
formance is  about  to  begin,  so  let  us  enter.  The  pit  or  ground 
space  has  neither  seats  nor  flooring,  and  the  open  sky  is 
overhead.  These  are  people  of  wealth  that  are  sitting  in 
the  galleries  round  the  pit,  and  a  few  are  even  sitting  on  the 
stage.  The  stage,  which  projects  into  the  pit,  has  pillars 
supporting  "  the  players'  house/'  whose  balcony  may  rep- 
resent a  window,  a  castle,  or  a  prison,  at  the  will  of  the  per- 
formers. Above  that  you  can  see  "  the  heavens"  and  a 
thatched  roof,  similar  to  that  which  overhangs  the  galleries. 

Printing  of  Plays.  —  When  an  author  sold  his  drama,  the 
purchaser  might  hand  it  to  another  writer  with  orders  to 
alter  it  as  seemed  best.  In  recent  years  much  time  has  been 
spent  in  trying  to  find  out  which  author  or  authors  wrote 
certain  parts  of  a  drama.  Actors  did  not  always  wish  to 
print  plays  which  they  owned,  because  publication  would 
make  it  easy  for  other  companies  to  use  the  same  plays. 

John  Lyly  (1554?-! 606).  —  The  name  of  Lyly,  author  of 
Euphues,  is  mentioned  earlier  in  this  chapter.  From  1580 
to  1593  he  wrote  eight  plays  containing  some  good  songs. 
His  plays,  seven  of  which  are  in  prose,  were  not  intended  for 
performance  by  men  in  the  public  theatre.  Boy-actors 
played  before  the  Queen,  who  evidently  enjoyed  Lyly's 
classical  stories,  tinged  as  they  were  with  political  allegory. 
Romantic  comedies  such  as  The  Woman  in  the  Moon  are 
not  without  refinement  and  cleverness.  In  Low's  Labour's 
Lost  Shakespeare  followed  in  Lyly's  footsteps,  coloring 
comedy  with  romance. 

Thomas  Kyd  (i558?-i594).  —  In  blank  verse  Thomas 
Kyd,  a  Londoner,  produced  work  that  is  an  enormous  ad- 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  135 

vance  upon  plays  such  as  Gorboduc.  Tragedy  was  anything 
but  popular  before  Kyd  put  The  Spanish  Tragedy,  with  its 
modern  story  of  love  and  political  intrigue,  on  the  Eng- 
lish stage.  His  tragedy  may  at  times  more  correctly  be 
called  melodrama,  in  which  emphasis  is  laid  upon  emotion 
rather  fhanupon  the  development  of  character.  Kyd  knew 
how  to  relieve  the  horrors  of  the  main  tragedy,  and  he  not 
only  caught  the  public  fancy,  but  he  and  Marlowe  pointed 
the  way  to  the  greater  triumphs  of  later  tragedy. 

George  Peele  (i558?-i5g8?).  —  George  Peele,  a  graduate 
of  Oxford,  wrote  lyrics  that  are  tuneful,  and  to  him  the  well- 
chosen  word  came  easily.  Shakespeare  quotes  some  of  his 
lines.  Peele  certainly  improved  the  quality  of  English 
blank  verse  through  his  plays,  one  of  the  best  of  which  is 
David  and  Bethsabe,  published  in  1599.  There  is  tenderness 
in  the  passage  that  depicts  the  mourning  of  the  king  over  his 
son  Absalom  : 

Touch  no  hair  of  him, 

Not  that  fair  hair  with  which  the  wanton  winds 
Delight  to  play,  and  love  to  make  it  curl, 
Wherein  the  nightingales  would  build  their  nests, 
And  make  sweet  bowers  in  every  golden  tress, 
To  sing  their  lover  every  night  to  sleep. 

Robert  Greene  (i56o?-i5Q2).  —  When  Robert  Greene,  a 
master  of  English  romantic  comedy,  apparently  ventured  to  call 
Shakespeare  "  an  upstart  crow  beautified  with  our  feathers/' 
little  did  he  know  how  many  enemies  he  would  make  for 
three  centuries  thereafter.  Greene  left  his  native  town  of 
Norwich  for  Cambridge,  where  he  graduated  in  1578.  With 
equal  ease  he  wrote  prose  and  verse,  producing  some  of  the 
finest  lyrics  of  his  time.  The  central  feature  of  all  his  plays 
is  love,  a  love  which  has  as  its  object  a  pure  unselfish  heroine, 
quick  with  jests  to  conceal  her  emotion.  Greene's  heroes 
are  never  passive  like  those  of  Lyly's  plays.  Almost  every 


136  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

incident  counts  for  something  in  carrying  out  the  complete 
action  of  the  drama.  In  plays  such  as  The  Merchant  of 
Venice  Shakespeare  followed  Greene  in  regarding  romantic 
comedy  as  the  struggle  of  love  against  opposing  circumstances. 
Written  in  blank  verse,  Friar  Bacon  and  Friar  Bungay  is 
a  humorous  treatment  of  a  theme  resembling  Marlowe's 
Faustus.  This  popular  play  strives  to  bring  out  the  supe- 
riority of  Roger  Bacon,  English  scientist  or  magician,  over 
the  German  Faustus. 

CHRISTOPHER  MARLOWE  (1564-1593) 

If  all  the  pens  that  ever  poets  held 
Had  fed  the  feeling  of  their  masters'  thoughts, 
And  every  sweetness  that  inspired  their  hearts, 
Their  minds,  and  muses  on  admired  themes ; 
If  all  the  heavenly  quintessence  they  still 
From  their  immortal  flowers  of  poesy, 
Wherein,  as  in  a  mirror,  we  perceive 
The  highest  reaches  of  a  human  wit ; 
If  these  had  made  one  poem's  period, 
And  all  combin'd  in  beauty's  worthiness, 
Yet  should  there  hover  in  their  restless  heads 
One  thought,  one  grace,  one  wonder,  at  the  least, 
Which  into  words  no  virtue  can  digest. 

-  Act  V,  Sc.  ii. 

Here  is  the  vision  of  beauty  in  Marlowe's   Tamburlaine, 
the  longing  to  attain  the  ideal,  that  led  the  poet  on  to  accom 
plish  better  work  than  English  drama  had  ever  known 
This  is  real  poetry  because  it  has  the  beauty  of  sincerity  fitly 
expressed. 

Few  dates  in  the  history  of  the  modern  world  are  more 
notable  than  1564,  the  birth -year  of    Marlowe  and  Shake 
speare,  not  to  speak   of   Galileo,  the   Italian   astronomer 
Christopher  Marlowe,  a  native  of  Canterbury,  was  twenty 
three  years  of  age  when  he  took  his  master's  degree  at  Cam 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  137 

bridge.  Though  both  writers  were  born  in  the  same  year, 
Marlowe's  work  was  finished  before  Shakespeare  had  pro- 
duced his  greatest  plays. 

Marlowe's  Tragedies.  —  Marlowe's  literary  reputation 
rests  upon  four  tragedies,  the  earliest  of  which  is  Tamburlaine. 
The  first  part  of  it  was  acted  about  1587.  The  hero,  whose 
name  is  that  of  the  play,  is  a  fierce  Asiatic  conqueror.  Dr. 
Faustm  is  also  named  after  its  leading  character,  a  magician 
borrowed  by  Marlowe  from  Germany.  Faustus  sells  his 
soul  to  Satan  in  order  to  gratify  his  passion  for  power,  not 
of  the  sword,  but  of  magic.  He  became  more  familiar  than 
any  German  character  in  English  literature.  In  The  Jew 
of  Malta  Barabas  represents  passion  for  wealth.  The  Jew, 
who  is  badly  treated,  has  a  beautiful  daughter  converted  to 
Christianity,  but  he  does  not  claim  our  sympathy  like  Shy- 
lock  in  Shakespeare's  Merchant  of  Venice.  Edward  II  is 
better  constructed  than  the  other  tragedies,  and  it  rises  far 
above  any  earlier  historical  play  of  England.  This  is  how 
the  unfortunate  king  addresses  Leicester : 

Leicester,  if  gentle  words  might  comfort  me, 
Thy  speeches  long  ago  had  eas'd  my  sorrows  ; 
For  kind  and  loving  hast  thou  always  been. 
The  griefs  of  private  men  are  soon  allay'd, 
But  not  of  kings.     The  forest  deer,  being  struck, 
Runs  to  an  herb  that  closeth  up  the  wounds ; 
But  when  the  imperial  lion's  flesh  is  gor'd, 
He  rends  and  tears  it  with  his  wrathful  paw. 

-  Act  V,  Sc.  i. 

Marlowe's  Literary  Qualities.  —  Blank  verse  is  more 
elastic  than  rime  and  more  dignified  than  prose.  Others 
had  used  blank  verse  before  Marlowe,  but  he  employed  it  so 
happily  that  Shakespeare  and  others  did  not  hesitate  to 
follow  in  his  footsteps.  Though  the  scope  of  Marlowe's 
work  is  narrower  than  that  of  Shakespeare,  still  we  ought 


138  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

not  to  forget  that  all  his  work  was  done  before  he  was  thirty. 
Even  if  we  admit  that  his  plots  are  loose  in  framework,  the 
splendor  of  his  diction  and  the  passion  of  his  verse  stamp  him 
as  one  of  the  greatest  writers  of  the  Shakespearean  period. 

WILLIAM  SHAKESPEARE  (1564^jj31.6) 

The  current  that  with  gentle  murmur  glides, 

Thou  know'st,  being  stopped,  impatiently  doth  rage  ; 

But  when  his  fair  course  is  not  hindered, 

He  makes  sweet  music  with  the  enamell'd  stones, 

Giving  a  gentle  kiss  to  every  sedge 

He  overtaketh  in  his  pilgrimage, 

And  so  by  many  winding  nooks  he  strays 

With  willing  sport  to  the  wild  ocean. 

—  Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  Act  II,  Sc.  vii. 

Earlier  Years.  —  In  none  of  the  plays  is  there  a  more  vivid 
sketch  of  the  characteristics  of  the  river  Avon,  near  whose 
west  bank  the  future  dramatist  first  drew  breath  on  an 
April  day  in  1564.  John  Shakespeare,  whose  wife's  maiden 
name  had  been  Mary  Arden,  lived  in  what  is  now  Henley 
Street  at  Stratford-on-Avon.  Between  1569  and  1580  we 
know  that  young  Shakespeare  had  opportunities  of  seeing 
professional  actors  at  Stratford,  including  companies  such 
as  the  Queen's,  the  Earl  of  Leicester's,  and  the  Earl  of  Derby's. 
William  was  one  of  eight  children.  No  doubt  the  lad  at- 
tended the  local  Grammar  School,  whose  teachers  were  able 
to  train  him  in  the  elements  of  Latin.  In  later  years  one  of 
his  favorite  books  seems  to  have  been  the  second  edition  of 
the  Chronicles  of  Raphael  Holinshed,  who,  like  Shakespeare, 
was  a  native  of  Warwickshire. 

Later  Years.  —  A  short  walk  from  Stratford  takes  us  to 
a  little  village  at  the  far  end  of  which  is  part  of  a  house  that 
Shakespeare  visited.  It  was  the  home  of  Anne  Hathaway, 
whom  he  married  toward  the  close  of  1582.  By  the  time  that 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD 


139 


he  was  twenty-five,  Lyly,  Peele,  and  Greene  had  staged 
literary  comedies  with  success,  while  Kyd  and  Marlowe  had 
raised  tragedy  higher  _ 
than  it  had  been  since  it 
flourished  in  ancient 
Athens. 

About  a  hundred  miles 
away  is  London.  We 
know  not  when  or  why 
Shakespeare  went  there, 
but  apparently  he  began 
his  dramatic  career  by 


altering  and 
plays  owned 
Tiurbage's 


improving 
by  James 
of 


actors.  By  the  year  1592 
Shakespeare's  own  plays 
aroused  the  envy  of 
Robert  Greene,  who 
called  the  young  man 
from  Warwickshire  "  an 
upstart  crow."  In  the 
following  year  the  youth- 
ful Earl  of  Southamp- 
ton  became  his  patron. 
""Shakespeare,  Richard 
Burbage,  son  of  James,  and  others  played  twice  before  the 
Queen  during  the  Christmas  season  of  1594. 

Sir  Hugh  Clopton,  who  died  in  1497,  was  the  builder  of 
"  a  praty  house  of  bricke  and  tymbre  "  next  to  the  Stratford 
parish  church.  This  was  the  New  Place  bought  by  Shake- 
speare in  1597.  Unfortunately  this  house,  in  which  he  said 
good-by  to  the  world,  was  pulled  down  in  1757  by  a  person 
named  Gastrell.  Prosperity  had  come  to  Shakespeare,  for 


FIG.  45.  —  William  Shakespeare. 


140 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


in  1596  his  father  applied  to  the  College  of  Heralds.  Three 
years  later  the  heralds  granted  a  coat  of  arms,  thus  giving 
the  Shakespeares  the  title  of  gentlemen.  When  the  poet's 
granddaughter,  Lady  Barnard,  died  in  1670,  the  family 
became  extinct. 


Copyright 


FIG.  46.  —  New  Place  and  Holy  Trinity. 


Richard  II  and  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  issued  in  1598,  are 
the  first  plays  that  have  Shakespeare's  name  on  the  title 
page.  That  same  year  Francis  Meres,  a  well-known  scholar, 
published  a  list  of  twelve  Shakespearean  plays.  Of  course, 
the  list  may  not  be  accurate.  There  is  no  evidence  that  he 
consulted  the  playwright,  who  at  that  time  seems  to  have 
resided  with  a  family  called  Mount  joy 1  at  the  corner  of  Silver 
and  Muggle  streets  in  London.  Next  year  Shakespeare  was 
a  stockholder  in  the  new  Globe  Theatre  on  the  south  side  of 
the  river  Thames. 

1  This  is  one  of  the  discoveries  of  Professor  C.  W.  Wallace  of  the 
University  of  Nebraska. 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  141 

Two  months  after  Elizabeth's  death  in  1603,  her  successor 
James  I  specially  favored  Shakespeare  and  his  theatrical 
friends  by  making  the  Globe  actors  the  King's  Company  of 
Players.  Thereafter  the  greatest  masterpieces  of  the  English 
drama  were  produced.  In  1610  Shakespeare  became  a 
stockholder  in  Burbage's  other  theatre,  the  Blackfriars. 
Lucky  it  was  for  them  that  they  owned  it,  for  in  1613  the 
Globe  burned  down  in  the  midst  of  a  performance  of  Henry 
VIII.  James  I  helped  to  rebuild  the  Globe,  and  it  opened 
with  renewed  splendor. 

The  Last  Sleep.  —  For  the  last  time  the  light  hazel  eyes  of 
Shakespeare  closed  in  his  fifty-second  year : 

Fast  asleep  ?     It  is  no  matter  ; 
Enjoy  the  honey-dew  of  slumber : 
Thou  hast  no  figures  nor  no  fantasies, 
Which  busy  care  draws  in  the  brains  of  men ; 
Therefore  thou  sleep'st  so  sound. 

—  Julius  Ccesar,  Act  II,  Sc.  i. 

Above  the  elms  and  the  lime-trees  rises  the  tall  gray  spire 
of  Holy  Trinity,  in  the  chancel  of  which  lies  our  most  il- 
lustrious dramatist.  A  flat  stone  guards  his  tomb,  and  a  niche 
in  the  wall  above  holds  a  bust  of  him  whose  noble  forehead 
and  shapely  oval  features  are  so  familiar.  In  the  hush  of 
evening  the  Avon,  as  it  sweeps  between  its  willowy  banks, 
still  croons  a  lament. 

Shakespeare  as  a  Man.  —  The  testimony  of  chief  value 
is  that  of  men  who  knew  Shakespeare  and  his  friends.  Henry 
Chettle,  who  in  1592  had  published  Greene's  attack  on  Shake- 
speare, apparently  apologized  that  same  year  in  his  Kind- 
Harts  Dreame.  He  remarks,  "  Myself e  have  scene  his 
demeanor  no  lesse  civill  than  he  exelent  in  the  qualitie 
(profession)  he  professes :  Besides,  divers  (different  people) 
of  worship  (worth)  have  reported  his  uprightnes  of  dealing, 
which  argues  his  honesty." 


142  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"  I  love  the  man/'  said  Ben  Jonson,  the  dramatist,  "and 
do  honor  his  memory,  on  this  side  of  idolatry,  as  much  as  any. 
He  was  indeed  honest,  and  of  an  open  and  free  nature ;  had 
an  excellent  fantasy,  brave  notions,  and  gentle  expressions, 
wherein  he  flowed  with  that  facility  that  sometimes  it  was 
necessary  he  should  be  stopped.  .  .  .  There  was  ever  more 
in  him  to  be  praysed  than  to  be  pardoned." 

Shakespeare  as  a  Lyric  Poet.  —  Among  Shakespeare's 
lyrics  are  the  songs  in  the  plays,  but  they  are  less  important 
than  his  sonnets.  Each  of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty-four 
sonnets  contains  three  quatrains,  followed  by  two— liae^ 
that  rime  with  each  other.  At  an  unknown  date  they  were 
addressed  to  an  unknown  man,  whom  some  believe  to  be 
William  Herbert,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  while  others  are  satisfied 
that  the  man  was  the  Earl  of  Southampton.  In  Shake- 
speare's time  sonnets  were  fashionable,  and  poets  liked  to 
praise  a  patron  who  was  supposed  to  have  inspired  them. 
Many  able  men  have  tried  to  reveal  the  hidden  meaning  of 
the  Shakespearean  sonnets,  if  there  be  any,  but  it  seems  better 
to  read  and  enjoy  them  simply  as  specimens  of  splendid 
poetry. 

Shakespeare  as  a  Dramatist.  —  If  we  wish  to  find  pleasure 
in  any  drama  we  should  read  all  of  it  as  quickly  as  possible, 
even  if  passages  here  and  there  are  rather  puzzling.  In  this 
way  we  catch  the  spirit  of  the  play  and  the  general  purpose  ! 
of  its  author.  This  simple  plan  will  add  greatly  to  our  satis- 
faction in  studying  the  details  at  leisure.  The  word  play 
implies  pleasure  no  less  real  than  that  which  comes  to  us  in 
reading  a  good  story  or  engaging  in  some  pastime. 

There  was  a  time  when  Shakespeare  could  not  write  a 
single  sentence,  but  he  learned  how  to  do  this  either  at  home  ! 
or  at  school.     When  he  went  to  London  he  noticed  that  there 
was  a  great  demand  for  plays.     He  could  not  write  a  play.     He 
was  eager  to  know  as  much  as  possible  about  plays.     He 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  143 

found  out  that  the  most  popular  playwrights  were  college 
men.  He  did  not  waste  time  saying  that  a  young  man  from 
the  country  had  no  chance  against  young  men  with  a  college 
education.  He  simply  secured  a  position  of  some  sort  at 
a  theatre.  He  watched  the  plays  on  the  stage  and  took 
part  in  them.  He  picked  up  the  technique  of  stagecraft. 
He  asked  himself  why  certain  plays  were  popular.  He  read 
other  people's  plays.  Some  of  them  he  touched  up  here 
and  there  from  his  knowledge  of  the  stage  and  of  human 
nature.  Finally  one  day  he  began  to  write  a  play  of  his  own. 
As  the  outcome  of  keen  observation,  good  judgment,  and 
lively  imagination,  he  gave  the  people  what  they  wanted. 
Of  course,  his  first  plays  were  not  nearly  so  fine  as  those  he 
wrote  later,  but  he  learned  by  experience,  and  there  is  no 
other  way  to  learn  anything.  Determination  spurred  him 
on  to  hard  work,  and  hard  work  developed  the  marvellous 
power  that  lay  somewhere  in  his  brain  cells. 

Order  of  the  Plays.  —  No  one  can  tell  the  precise  order  in 
which  Shakespeare  wrote  his  plays.  If  this  fact  were  known, 
we  could  study  them  one  after  another  as  they  were  written, 
and  thus  to  some  extent  we  might  trace  the  growth  of  Shake- 
speare's power.  In  a  book  whose  large  pages  are  of  folio  size, 
the  plays  were  first  published  in  1623. 

This  is  the  method  that  has  been  followed  by  scholars  in 
order  to  gain  a  general  idea  of  the  order  of  the  plays.  First, 
the  date  of  performance  or  publication  is  compared  with 
^references,  IT  there  be  any,  in  other  works  such  as  diaries. 
Second,  if  Shakespeare  alludes  in  a  certain  play  to  an  event 
that  happened,  for  instance,  in  1600,  we  are  sure  that  the 
play  could  not  have  been  written  in  1599,  unless  the  passage, 
has  been  added  later  by  some  unknown  hand.  Third,  in  the 
earlier  plays  Shakespeare  uses  a  great  deal  of  rime,  whereas 
in  later  plays  he  employs  more  blank  verse  with  an  extra 
syllable  in  the  line.  Fourth,  the  later  plays  are  naturally 


144  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

more  finished  in  style,  and  show  a  deeper  knowledge  of  human 
nature. 

Plays  of  the  First  Period.  —  Since  no  one  has  positive 
knowledge  of  the  date  when  Shakespeare  wrote  each  of  his 


By  Piloty 
FIG.  47.  —  "  Where  is  my  Romeo." 

plays,  the  division  of  the  plays  into  groups  is  of  value  only 
so  far  as  it  tends  to  show  the  probable  development  of  the 
poet's  genius.  His  earliest  play  may  have  been  written 
about  15S9^_and  the  plays  of  the  first  period  seem  to  range 
between  that  date  and.  1594. 

To  Shakespeare's  first  or  experimental  period  apparently 
belong  the  comedies  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Comedy  of  Errors^ 


THE  8HAKESPEABEAN  PERIOD  145 

Two  Gentlemen  of  Verona,  and  the  historical  plays  Henry  VI, 
Richard  III,  King  John.  The  tragedy  of  blood,  Titus 
Andronicus,  also  belongs  to  this  series.  Love's  Labour's 
Lost,  if  not  the  earliest,  is  certainly  a  very  early  example  of 
the  poet's  playwriting.  Shakespeare  is  making  interesting 
experiments  that  are  to  lead  him  higher. 

Plays  of  the  Second  Period.  —  In  the  plays  of  the  second 
period  Shakespeare's  sense  of  humor  is  surer  and  keener. 
Women  now  begin  to  play  a  more  prominent  part.  The 
date  of  composition  of  the  dramas  of  this  group  may  range 
from  about  1594Ju^about  "160i.  These  comprise  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  Richard  II,  Merchant  of 
Venice,  Taming  of  the  -Shrew,  Henry  IV,  Merry  Wives  of 
Windsor,  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  Henry  V,  Julius  Ccesar, 
As  You  Like  It,  Twelfth  Night. 

Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  first  published  in  1600,  is  the 
most  daring  romantic  comedy  of  the  second  period.  Shake- 
speare shows  the  fairies  of  the  country  to  the  people  of  the 
city.  His  magic  makes  the  fairies  of  bygone  centuries  live 
again ;  his  splendid  judgment  makes  them  live  only  among 
the  mysteries  of  dreamland.  Here  is  a  familiar  passage  : 

The  poet's  eye,  in  a  fine  frenzy  rolling, 

Doth  glance  from  heaven  to  earth,  from  earth  to  heaven  ; 

And,  as  imagination  bodies  forth 

The  forms  of  things  unknown,  the  poet's  pen 

Turns  them  to  shapes,  and  gives  to  airy  nothing 

A  local  habitation  and  a  name. 

Such  tricks  hath  strong  imagination, 

That,  if  it  would  but  apprehend  some  joy, 

It  comprehends  some  bringer  of  that  joy; 

Or  in  the  night,  imagining  some  fear, 

How  easy  is  a  bush  supposed  a  bear  !  —  Act  V,  Sc.  i. 

The  Merchant  of  Venice,  first  printed  in  1600,  is  more  full 
of  life  than  any  romantic  comedy  we  have  hitherto  considered. 


146  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

This  is  why  it  remains  so  "  popular."  It  is  in  this  play  that 
Shakespeare  portrays  his  first  masterful  character.  Shylock, 
convinced  that  some  evil  is  about  to  happen,  says  to  his 
daughter,  Jessica,  "  Lock  up  my  doors/'  Portia  and  Jessica 


By  R.  Smirke 
FIG.  48.  —  "  Lock  up  my  doors."  —  Merchant  of  Venice. 

are  far  nobler  figures  than  the  adventurers  who  profess 
affection  for  these  wealthy  maidens.  Shakespeare  has 
now  mastered  the  art  of  saying  more  than  he  seems  to  say. 
The  witchery  of  twilight  or  moonlight,  the  witchery  of  true 
poetry,  lurks  in  verses  such  as  these : 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  147 

Sit,  Jessica :  look,  how  the  floor  of  heaven 

Is  thick  inlaid  with  patines  of  bright  gold : 

There's  not  the  smallest  orb  which  thou  behold'st 

But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 

Still  quiring  (choiring)  to  the  young-eyed  cherubims  ; 

But,  whilst  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay 

Doth  grossly  close  it  in,  we  cannot  hear  it.  —  Act  V,  Sc.  i. 

,Pa,tTiatism^is  the  keynote  of  Henry  V,  one  of  the  best  of 
Shakespeare's  history  plays.  This  type  of  play  suited  an 
age  when  Spain's  power  was  jealously  regarded  in  England. 
The  dramatist  points  out  that  a  ruler  is  responsible  to  the 
people  as  well  as  to  a  higher  power. 

All  things  are  ready,  if  our  minds  be  so.  —  Act  IV,  Sc.  i. 

Shakespeare  was  no  snob.  He  did  not  despise  the  masses 
of  the  people,  but  he  knew  the  fickleness  of  the  mob.  The 
Roman  mob  was  like  any  other.  Julius  Ccesair-is  a  profound 
study  in  sociology.  Its  unity  rests  upon  the  fact  that  it 

ow^Crle^inHerent  weakness  of  lynch  law.  Violence,  even 
in  a  good  cause,  brings  punishment  of  some  sort  either  for 
one  or  for  many.  Caesar  and  Brutus  are  neither  wicked 
nor  stupid,  yet  both  perish  because  they  have  ventured  to 
defy  the  sanction  of  lawful  authority.  Always  the  essence 
of  tragedy  is  greatness  with  a  fatal  blemish. 

O  you  hard  hearts,  you  cruel  men  of  Rome, 
Knew  you  not  Pompey  ?     Many  a  time  and  oft 
Have  you  climb'd  up  to  walls  and  battlements, 
To  towers  and  windows,  yea,  to  chimney-tops, 
Your  infants  in  your  arms,  and  there  have  sat 
The  livelong  day,  with  patient  expectation, 
To  see  great  Pompey  pass  the  streets  of  Rome. 

And  do  you  now  strew  flowers  in  his  way 
That  comes  in  triumph  over  Pompey's  blood  ? 
Be  gone  !  —  Act  I,  Sc.  i. 


148  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  As  You  Like  It,  and  Twelfth 
Night  are  dramatizations  of  pastoral  romance.  In  such 
plays  Shakespeare  invites  us  to  forget  for  a  time  the  petty 
cares  of  the  real  world  by  rambling  with  him  in  an  ideal  world, 
where  fancy  triumphs  over  fact.  The  conception  is  not  new 
to  readers  of  books  like  Sidney's  Arcadia  and  Spenser's 
Faerie  Queene.  As  You  Like  Itjs  a  romantic  comedy  whose 
scenes  are  laid  in  the  country.  It  is  a  sort  of  fairy  tale  told 
playfully  in  language  of  great  beauty.  Touchstone,  the 
cleverest  of  Shakespearean  clowns,  enlivens  the  play  with 
his  irony.  Every  one  has  read  the  lines  that  follow  : 

Sweet  are  the  uses  of  adversity, 

Which  like  the  toad,  ugly  and  venomous, 

Wears  yet  a  precious  jewel  in  his  head ; 

And  this  our  life,  exempt  from  public  haunt, 

Finds  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 

Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  every  thing. 

—  Act  II,  Sc.  i. 

Plays  of  the  Third  Period.  —  Tragedy  dominates  the  third 
period.  The  plays  are  Troilus  and  Cressida,  All's  Well 
that  Ends  Well,  Measure  for  Measure,  'Hamlet,  Othello,  King 
Lear,  Macbeth,  Timon  of  Athens,  Antony  and  Cleopatra, 
Pericles,  Coriolanus.  Shakespeare  may  have  written  these 
plays  between  1601  and  1609.  Some  critics  believe  that 
his  choice  of  tragedy  had  some  connection  with  the  circum- 
stances of  his  own  career,  but  it  is  much  more  likely  that  he 
wrote  to  suit  a  change  in  public  taste. 

On  the  map  of  Scotland,  south  of  the  Moray  Firth,  we  can 
see  the  village  of  Auldearn.  Three  miles  distant  is  the 
witches'  hillock.  Not  a  blade  of  grass  grows  upon  it.  Wan 
and  lifeless  lie  the  withered  needles  and  cones  of  the  pine  trees. 
Do  you  notice  that  side  of  the  hillock  —  bare  and  black  ? 
That  is  where  the  witches  are  said  to  have  emptied  their 
horrid  caldron.  Here  it  was  that  the  three  weird  hags  met 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  149 

Macbeth^after  his  victory  over  Macdonald,  Lord  of  the  Isles. 
From  this  spot  Macbeth  and  Banquo  passed  onward  to  King 
Duncan  (1033-1039)  at  the  town  of  Torres. 


By  Fusdi 
FIG.  49.  —  "  When  shall  we  three  meet  again  ?  " 

The  opening  scene  usually  gives  the  clew  to  the  purpose  of 
any  Shakespearean  play.     It  matters  little  whether  Macbeth 


FIG.  50.  —  Glamis  Castle,  residence  of  Macbeth. 

has  or  has  not  historical  accuracy.  The  dramatist  was  simply 
writing  a  play  upon  a  theme  that  might  suit  the  taste  of  the 
new  ruler  James  I,  who  was  a  Stuart  from  Edinburgh. 


150  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Macbeth  (1039-1056)  may  have  been  nobler  far  than  Shake- 
speare makes  him,  yet  the  literary  value  of  this  powerful 
drama  is  in  no  way  lowered.  As  we  read  at  home  or  witness 
on  the  stage  the  shortest  and  swiftest  of  all  Shakespearean 
tragedies,  we  are  in  a  realm  where  dates  and  other  petty 
details  are  of  no  consequence.  Witchcraft  we  may  regard 
with  scorn,  but  the  witchery  of  the  dramatist  casts  a  spell 
over  any  mind  that  is  in  sympathy  with  him.  The  witches, 
uncanny  representatives  of  the  weaker  side  of  human  nature, 
sway  Macbeth  because  his  thoughts  are  in  harmony  with 
theirs.  Down,  down,  down,  into  the  abyss  we  observe  two 
souls  driven  by  a  passion  that  whirls  them  off  their  feet. 

The  instruments  of  darkness  tell  us  truths, 
Win  us  with  honest  trifles,  to  betray's 
In  deepest  consequence.  —  Act  I,  Sc.  iv. 

Plays  of  the  Fourth  Period.  —  The  plays  of  Shakespeare's 
maturity  are  Cymheline,  Winter's  Tale,  and  The  Tempest. 
Written  probably  between  1610  and  1612,  they  mark  the 
most  brilliant  achievements  in  dramatic  romance. 

We  have  seen  that  the  first  period  comprises  the  earliest 
dramatic  productions,  imperfect  in  style  and  in  stagecraft. 
Shakespeare  is  not  yet  sure  of  himself.     In  the  second  period 
the  poet's  thought  is  not  so  conspicuous  as  his  diction.     If 
at  times  the  speeches  are  too  long  for  our  taste,  the  action  is  j| 
always    spirited.     The    third   is    the    period    of    unrivallec 
-^splendor.     No  one  knows  how  many  plays  were  written  a 
this  time  by  other  dramatists,  but  they  were  numerous  anc 
some  were  of   unusual  power.     Most  of    the  best  Shake 
spearean  tragedies  were  written  in  the  reign  of  James  I  rathe 
than  that  of  Elizabeth.     We  shudder  at  the  power  of  thos 
dramas  that  depict  the  utter  ruin  of  a  great  man  through  a 
besetting  weakness.     Othello,  for  example,  falls  simply  by 
reason  of  his  overtrustfulness.     In  the  fourth  period  the  three 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  151 

dramatic  romances  are  like  sun-kissed  rocks  that  smile 
gently  after  a  succession  of  tragic  storms.  These  three  plays 
seem  to  rise  above  the  turmoil  of  earth  into  an  atmosphere 
peopled,  as  in  The  Tempest,  by  idealized  figures  like  Prospero 
and  his  lovely  daughter,  Miranda. 

Collaborated  Plays.  —  Collaborated  plays  are  those  in 
which  Shakespeare  is  believed  to  have  worked  with  or  after 
some  other  dramatist.  Titus  Andronicus,  known  to  have 
been  in  existence  in  1594,  is  what  is  called  a  tragedy  of  blood. 
It  has  been  surmised  that  Kyd  wrote  much  of  it,  a  surmise 
for  which  there  is  no  proof.  Shakespeare  may  have  taken 
another  man's  crude  play  and  recast  it,  adding  poetic  passages 
that  help  to  modify  its  horrors.  The  three  parts  of  Henry  VI, 
or  Shakespeare's  contributions  thereto,  may  be  the  earliest 
of  his  dramatic  work.  No  one  can  be  sure  that  Marlowe 
wrote  a  single  passage.  If  Shakespeare  did  not  write  the 
play,  he  may  have  given  it  a  revision.  The  Taming  of  the 
Shrew  is  supposed  to  be  an  improved  version  of  an  earlier 
farce  comedy.  Its  fun  and  vivacity  scarcely  make  up  for  its 
lack  of  high  literary  power. 

Among  the  later  collaborated  plays  is  Timon  of  Athens, 
first  published  in  1623.  It  is  the  story  of  a  man  who  became 
a  cynic  when  he  experienced  the  sting  of  ingratitude.  The 
text  is  corrupt.  Most  of  the  third  and  fifth  acts  are  alleged 
to  have  been  written  by  an  unknown  hand.  Another  dis- 
agreeable play  is  Pericles,  based  upon  the  old  Greek  romance, 
Apollonius  of  Tyre.  In  1609  it  was  printed  as  Shakespeare's, 
nevertheless  much  of  it  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  work 
of  an  unrecognized  playwright.  Henry  VIII,  written  about 
1612,  induced  Tennyson  to  remark  that  many  passages  re- 
minded him  of  Fletcher,  a  suggestion  that  was  made  earlier 
by  others.  Shakespeare  probably  worked  along  with  John 
Fletcher  in  this  play  and  to  a  less  extent  in  The  Two  Noble 
Kinsmen. 


152 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Table  of  Approximate  Dates.  —  The  following  table  l  sets 
forth  in  a  convenient  form  some  of  the  results  of  the  latest 
Shakespearean  scholarship.  Each  date  indicates,  as  ac- 
curately as  possible,  the  year  when  the  play  was  written. 


PERIODS 

COMEDIES 

HISTORIES 

TRAGEDIES 

L.  L.  L.  1591 

1  Hy.  VI  1590-1 

C.  of  E.  1591 

2  Hy.  VI  1590-2 

I 

T.  G.  of  V.  1591-2 

3  Hy.  VI  1590-2 

R.  Ill  1593 

K.  J.  1593 

T.  And.  1593-4 

M.  N.  D.  1594-5 

M.  of  V.  1595-6 

R.  II     1595 

R.  and  J.  1594-5 

T.  of  S.  1596-7 

II 

M.  W.  of  W.  1598 

1  Hy.  IV  1597 

M.  Ado  1599 

2  Hy.  IV  1598 

A.  Y.  L.  1.  1599-1600 

Hy.  V     1599 

J.  C*es.  1599 

Tw.  N.  1601 

T.  and  C.  1601-2 

Ham.  1602-3 

A.  Well  1602 

Oth.  1604 

Lear  1605-6 

III 

Meas.  1603 

Macb.  1606 

T.  of  Ath.  1607 

Per.  1607-8 

A.  &  Cl.  1607-8 

Cor.  1609 

Cymb.  1610 

W.  Tale  1611 

IV 

Temp.  1611 

T.  N.  K.  1612-13 

Hy.  VIII  1612 

Lest   We   Forget.  —  All   the   original   manuscripts   have 
apparently   perished.     This    makes    it    difficult,   especially 

1  Reproduced  from  Facts  about  Shakespeare  (1913).     See  bibliog- 
raphy at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN   PERIOD 


153 


in  the  earlier  plays,  to  distinguish  between  what  is  Shake- 
speare's own  work  and  what  was  written  by  an  earlier  hand 
or  by  a  colleague.  Naturally  only  the  finest  passages  are 
ascribed  to  Shakespeare. 

Besides,  the  actors  at  times  may  have  taken  liberties  with 
the  original  copy,  changing  words  or  phrases,  and  inserting 
or  removing  passages.  Carelessness  or  a  desire  to  make  a 
play  fit  for  the  stage  may  have  caused  such  changes. 


By  Von  Hatten 


FIG.  51.  —  "Royal  Dane,  O,  answer  me." 


Again,  while  Shakespeare  is  the  most  illustrious  dramatist 
of  literary  history,  he  was  human.  If  he  chanced  to  be  unwell, 
his  work  would  suffer.  Sometimes  he  may  have  been  so 
busy  that  he  had  to  write  in  a  hurry. 

The  Best  Plays.  —  Hamlet  is  the  most  popular  of  all 
Shakespearean  tragedies,  and  Macbeth  has  second  place.  In 
sublimity  of  imagination  Lear  excels  all  the  plays,  but  it  is 
present  successfully  on  a  modern  stage. 


154 


ENGLISH   LITERATURE 


Othello  is  probably  the  only  play  which  can  be  acted  in  the 
modern  manner  on  a  modern  stage  with  almost  no  alteration. 
As  a  study  of  human  nature  Othello  is  perhaps  surpassed  by 
Hamlet  and  Macbeth,  and  probably  by  Lear.  As  poetry  it  is 


By  Piloty 
FIG.  52.  —  "  Falstaff  —  fast  asleep." 

certainly  surpassed  by  Lear  and  Hamht,  and  possibly  by 
Macbeth,  but  in  stagecraft  it  is  without  a  rival.  Next  to 
these  tragedies  are  Romeo  and  Juliet  and  Julius  Ccesar. 

It  is  the  jovial  figure  of  .Ealstaff  that  makes  Henry  IV  the 
most  attractive  of  the  English  history  plays.  Among  the 
most  popular  of  the  historical  dramas  are  Richard  II  and 
Richard  III.  The  former  is  especially  rich  in  memorable 
passages  of  poetry.  The  wooing  of  Lady  Anne  and  the 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  155 

dreainof_Clarence,  in  the  latter  play,  have  usually  been 
favorite  scenes  with  admirers  of  Shakespearean  drama. 

The  Merchant  of  Venice  ranks  first  in  popularity  among 
the  romantic  comedies.  According  to  their  taste  will  dif- 
ferent people  arrange  the  choicest  of  the  remaining  comedies. 
When  we  have  read  or  seen  Midsummer  Night's  Dream, 
Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  As  You  Like  It,  Ticelfth  Night, 
and  The  Tempest,  we  have  read  or  seen  about  the  best  that 
Shakespeare  offers  in  romance  for  the  world's  enjoyment. 

Sources  of  the  Plays.  —  Any  one  can  tell  a  story,  but  a 
story  has  value  according  to  the  beauty  or  the  literary  art 
that  it  exhibits.  Shakespeare  cared  little  about  historical 
accuracy,  but  no  man  ever  surpassed  him  in  reviving  the 
spirit  of  a  scene  or  the  purport  of  a  story.  It  was  from  the 
book  of  experience  that  he  obtained  most  of  the  important 
material  in  his  plays.  He  must  have  been  a  close  observer, 
and  his  well-balanced  imagination  enabled  him  to  portray 
what  he  observed.  This  he  did  in  such  a  way  that  it  will 
never  be  forgotten. 

Allusions  to  ancient  mythology  and  history  were  common 
in  English  dramas  before  Shakespeare.  This  seemed  to 
suit  the  taste  of  the  people.  Although  Shakespeare  could 
probably  glean  the  general  meaning  of  a  Roman  writer  like 
Plautus,  yet  he  preferred  English  translations.  Sir  Thomas 
North's  translations  of  Plutarch's  Lives  gave  him  a  start  with 
plays  like  Julius  Ccesar. 

Shakespeare  reacj  the  plays,  ballads,  novels,  and  tales  of 
other  men.  He  had  some  knowledge  of  French,  but  he 
preferred  translations,  whether  from  French  or  from  Italian 
or  Spanish.  If  he  saw  anything  that  caught  his  fancy,  he 
transformed  it  by  the  power  of  his  brain,  producing  some- 
thing new  as  well  as  true  to  human  nature.  The  English 
history  plays,  Macbeth,  and  other  dramas  are  based  upon 
Daniel's  Barons'  Wars,  Holinshed's  Chronicles,  and  similar 


156  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

works.  From  a  brief  remark  in  Holinshed  he  sketched  the 
powerful  figure  of  Lady  Macbeth.  Character  after  character 
is' absolutely  original. 

Realism  and  Idealism.  —  In  literature  the  word  realism 
means  presenting  real  life  through  language  or  through  action 
and  language.  All  literature,  of  course,  professes  to  deal  with 
real  life  directly  or  indirectly.  There  is  the  life  of  the  flesh, 
and  there  is  the  life  of  the  human  spirit.  Too  often  realism 
has  been  content  to  represent  the  former  side  of  real  life. 
No  doubt  man  belongs  to  the  animal  kingdom,  yet  he  is 
more  than  an  animal.  If  he  were  not,  there  could  be  no  such 
thing  as  literature.  When  stress  is  laid  on  the  mere  facts  of 
life,  we  call  it  realism.  When  stress  is  laid  on  the  truth  or 
ideal  underlying  the  facts,  we  call  it  idealism.  This  is  not 
the  whole  story.  It  may,  however,  serve  to  indicate  the 
difference.  The  English  stage  was  becoming  realistic  when 
The  Tempest  appeared  in  all  its  serene  beauty.  This  play  is 
perhaps  the  last  memorable  expression  of  Shakespeare's 
belief  that  matter  is  controlled  by  mind,  that  the  real  is 
simply  a  cloak  for  the  ideal. 

Society  and  the  Stage.  — Why  was  the  English  stage  chang- 
ing its  appeal?  This  is  the  answer.  In  1588  the  Spaniards, 
provoked  by  the  deeds  of  English  freebooters,  had  their 
Armada  or  armed  fleet  ready  to  attack  England.  The  Eng- 
lish became  alarmed  when  there  was  a  likelihood  of  invasion 
by  the  most  powerful  of  all  nations.  People  forgot  their  own 
petty  troubles  and  quarrels  in  order  to  unite  against  the 
common  foe.  For  a  number  of  years  every  one  was  uplifted 
by  that  ideal  which  is  called  patriotism.  It  can  scarcely  be 
by  chance  that  Shakespeare's  English  history  plays,  expres- 
sive of  strong  national  feeling,  were  apparently  written 
between  1590  and  1599. 

Time,  however,  brought  a  sense  of  national  security.  The 
closing  years  of  the  sixteenth  century  witnessed  the  rise  of 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  157 

certain  social  tendencies  that  reached  their  climax  in  the 
Restoration  drama  of  the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. People  became  more  interested  in  themselves  and  their 
neighbors.  The  stage,  which  strives  to  be  the  mirror  of  its 
own  age,  portrayed  or  laughed  at  passing  follies  and  pleas- 
antries. In  other  words,  the  stage  was  becoming  realistic, 
and  it  turned  to  the  comedy  of  manners. 

The  Playwright's  Problem.  —  A  poem  or  a  novel  may  be 
successful  many  years  after  it  is  published,  but  a  play  must 
succeed  at  once.  If  it  fails  to  please  the  playgoers  during 
the  first  week  of  its  performance,  the  manager  withdraws  it 
from  the  boards.  No  oite  knew  this  better  than  Shakespeare. 
He  was  not  indifferent  to  real  life.  His  plays  were  written 
to  be  acted. 

How  did  he  solve  the  problem  ?  He  used  his  imagination. 
He  put  himself  in  the  position  of  a  person  seeking  entertain- 
ment at  the  Globe  or  any  other  theatre.  Like  other  play- 
wrights, most  of  whom  are  now  forgotten,  Shakespeare 
dealt  with  the  incidents  of  human  life.  He  selected  those 
that  suited  his  purpose,  and  he  had  a  purpose.  He  possessed 
the  imagination  and  the  self-control  of  a  supreme  artist. 
He  saw  what  every  one  desired  to  see.  He  glorified  the  facts 
of  life  by  showing  their  full  significance.  He  penetrated  to 
the  inner  meaning  of  events  and  pictured  what  other  play- 
wrights had  failed  to  behold. 

Why  Shakespeare  Lives.  —  The  most  gifted  actors,  not 
only  of  Britain  and  America,  but  of  Italy  and  other  countries, 
still  present  these  matchless  dramas  to  appreciative  audiences. 
The  plays  have  life,  and  through  them  Shakespeare  lives. 
This  is  why.  Playwrights  without  genius  follow  the  passing 
appetite  of  the  multitude,  whereas  Shakespeare  guides  the 
multitude  by  coaxing  them  to  see  the  beauty  that  is  hidden  in 
common  incidents  and  in  human  hearts.  He  strips  the  petti- 
ness from  life  and  reveals  the  eternal  elements  underneath. 


158  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Again  and  again  he  shows  us  how  to  overcome  the  restraints 
of  real  life  by  finding  freedom  in  the  realm  of  the  ideal.  It  is 
the  atmosphere  of  romance,  portrayed  with  unparalleled 
judgment,  that  enables  him  to  see  life  in  its  true  perspective. 
He  has  learned  to  live  with  genial  dignity,  unmoved  by  what 
is  transient.  This  is  the  greatest  secret  of  his  life-work. 
This  it  is  that  enables  his  plays  to  stand  the  test  of  time. 
This  it  is  that  makes  them  appeal  to  man  as  man  anywhere 
at  any  time.  And  this  quality  is  called  universality. 

His  Place  in  Literature.  —  Perfect  men  and  perfect  women 
need  no  drama.  It  is  with  the  strife  of  good  and  evil  that 
religion  and  the  drama  are  mainly  concerned.  Shakespeare 
never  teaches,  except  indirectly.  He  suggests  what  is  the 
end  of  all  education  —  the  art  of  living.  Somewhere  in  his 
plays  every  man  is  sure  to  find  himself,  and  the  discovery 
makes  an  indelible  impression.  It  would  need  another 
Shakespeare  to  interpret  completely  the  creative  genius  of 
the  world's  most  illustrious  dramatist. 

Farewell,  William  Shakespeare  !  Help  us  not  to  misunder- 
stand the  simple  courage,  the  hidden  beauty,  the  divine 
hope  in  the  words  of  the  English  monarch : 

There  is  some  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil, 
Would  men  observingly  distil  it  out. 

-  Henry  V,  Act  IV,  Sc.  i. 

SUMMARY 

1 .  Love  of  adventure  and  religious  troubles  put  color  into 
the  Shakespearean  period.     No  book  of  great  importance 
appeared  during  the  first  twenty  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 

2.  Ascham's  prose  was  plain,  whereas  Lyly's  was  flowery, 

3.  Sidney's  Arcadia  is  a  pastoral  romance  wherein  gentle- 
men of  fashion  are  supposed  to  be  shepherds.      The  pastoral 
style  was  a  fad  borrowed  from  Spain.     Sidney's  Apologiefor 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  159 

Poetrie  seeks  to  show  that  poetry  has  real  value  for  those  who 
do  not  forget  that  each  human  being  possesses  a  mind  or  soul 
as  well  as  a  body. 

4.  Spenser's  Shepherd's  Calendar  represents  England  as  a 
sort  of  sheep  farm  in  charge  of  "  Fair  Eliza."     His  Epitha- 
lamion  is  a  poem  celebrating  the  sacredness  of  true  love. 
His  Faerie  Qitcene  is  a  long  pastoral  poem  written  in  honor,  of 
Kli/nbctli.     Its  moral  and  political  allegory  may  now  be  a 
little  tiresome,  although  as  beautiful  poetry  it  will  always  be 
appreciated. 

5.  Spain  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  the  greatest  of  all 
nations.     Its  literature  affected  English  men  of  letters. 

6.  In  1576,  when  Shakespeare  was  a  boy  of  twelve,  the  first 
English  theatre  was  erected  by  James  Burbage.      Theatrical 
companies  seldom  printed  the  plays  which  they  purchased. 
They  did  not  wish  them  to  be  used  by  other  companies. 

7.  Lyly's  Woman  in  the  Moon,  Peele's  David  and  Bethsabe, 
Kyd's  Spanish  Tragedy,  and  Greene's  Friar  Bacon  and  Friar 
Bunyay  are  among  the  many  plays  that  prepared  the  way  for 
Marlowe  and  Shakespeare. 

8.  Marlowe  wrote  four  tragedies,  the  earliest  of  which  is 
Tamburlaine  (Tamerlane,  a  Tartar  chief  of  the  fourteenth 
century  who  conquered  most  of  western  Asia).     These^jpjays 
are  spirited  and  poetical.     Marlowe  was  not  the  first  drama- 
tist to  employ  blank  verse,  but  he  showed  Shakespeare  what 

could  be  done  with  it. 

9.  Shakespearean  lyrics  include  songs  of  the  plays,  sonnets, 
and  several  larger  poems.     Beautiful  lyrics  were  common  in 
those  days,  but  in  imagination,  in  poetic  force,  Shakespeare 
is  the  acknowledged  leader. 

10.  If  we  try  to  arrange  the  plays  in  much  the  same  order 
as  they  were  written,  we  may  observe  the  growth  of    the 
dramatist's  mental  power.     Most  of  the  greatest  tragedies 
belong  to  the  reign  of  James  L 

1 


160  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

11.  Realism  consists  in  presenting  certain  aspects  of  real 
life.     Idealism  tries  to  show  the  lasting  or  ideal  significance 
of  the  passing  events  of  real  life.     Shakespeare  is  an  idealist. 

12.  During  the  closing  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  insincer- 
ity and  shallowness  of  thought  infected   many  members  of 
fashionable  society.     This  brought  a  change  in  the  style  of 
most  playwrights,  but  not  in  that  of  Shakespeare. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1 .  What  is  euphuism  ? 

2.  In  what  respect  do    More's   Utopia,  Sidney's  Arcadia,  and 
Bacon's  New  Atlantis  resemble  each  other  ? 

3.  What  are  Spenser's  chief  pastoral  poems  ?     What  is  the  nature 
of  the  allegory  ?     Explain  Spenserian  stanza. 

4.  Name  at  least  two  of  Bacon's  works,  and  state  their  purpose. 

5.  By  whom  was  the  first  public  playhouse  built  in  England? 
Wherein  did  it  differ  from  a  present-day  theatre  ? 

6.  Why  were  plays  of  the  Shakespearean  period  rarely  printed 
immediately  after  they  were  written  ? 

7.  How  did  Lyly,  Kyd,  Peele,  and  Greene  promote  the  develop- 
ment of  English  drama  ? 

8.  In  what  class  of  drama  did  Marlowe  distinguish  himself? 
Why  is  Marlowe  specially  remembered  by  students  of  drama  ? 

9.  Do  you  know  anything  about  Shakespeare  as  a  man,  as  a 
lyric  poet,  and  as  a  dramatist  ? 

10.  Name  at  least  one  play  in  each  of  the  four  periods  of  Shake- 
speare's career.     What  is  the  use  of  trying  to  arrange  his  plays  in 
the  order  in  which  they  were  written  ?     Do  you  remember  any  books 
that  he  must  have  read  in  securing  material  for  his  plays  ? 

11.  Is  there  any  connection  between  the  Spanish  Armada  and 
Shakespeare's  English  history  plays  ? 

12.  What  is  meant  by  saying  that  Shakespeare  was  an  idealist  ? 

ADDITIONAL   AUTHORS   WITH    CHIEF   WORKS 

George  Gascoigne  (1525?-1577),  The  Steel  Glass;  Sir  Thomas 
North  (1535?-! 601),  Plutarch's  Lives  (from  a  French  version); 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh  (1552-1618),  History  of  the  World;  Richard 
Hooker  (1553?-1600),  The  Ecclesiastical  Polity;  Thomas  Lodge 


THE  SHAKESPEAREAN  PERIOD  161 

(1558  7-1625),  Rosalynde.  Lodge  is  the  playwright  who  set  out  on  a 
freebooting  cruise,  during  which  he  composed  in  1596  A  Margarite 
of  America,  probably  the  only  novel  ever  written  in  the  chilly  Magel- 
lan Straits  (South  America);  George  Chapman  (15597-1634), 
Bussy  d'Ambois  and  Homer,  a  spirited  version  rather  than  a  trans- 
lation; Thomas  Campion  (15607-1620),  Book  of  Ayres;  Sir  John 
Davies  (1560-1626),  The  Orchestra;  Samuel  Daniel  (1562-1619), 
Delia;  Michael  Drayton  (1563-1631),  Polyolbion,  a  long  poem 
celebrating  the  rivers  of  England  and  the  events  connected  with 
them.  One  of  his  odes  is  The  Virginian  Voyage,  depicting  Virginia 
as  an  ideal  land  and  forecasting  her  future  triumphs  in  poetry; 
Thomas  Nash  (1567-16017),  The  Unfortunate  Traveller;  Thomas 
Middleton  (15707-1627),  A  Trick  to  Catch  the  Old  One;  Thomas 
Dekker  (15707-1641),  Fortunatus,  in  which  occur  the  memorable 
lines  — 

Patience  !  why,  'tis  the  soul  of  peace, 

Of  all  the  virtues  nearest  kin  to  heaven  ; 

It  makes  men  look  like  gods.     The  best  of  men 

That  e'er  wore  earth  about  him  was  a  suffrer. 

SUPPLEMENTARY   READING 

Besides  general  works  mentioned  in  previous  chapters,  the  fol- 
lowing books  are  recommended : 

a.   For  Classes 

Among  the  best  editions  of  separate  Shakespearean  plays  are 
those  known  as  the  Tudor  (Macmillan),  $.25;  based  upon  the 
Neilson  text,  which  has  no  superior;  the  Arden  (Heath),  $.25; 
Temple  (Button),  $.35;  Rolfe  (American  Book  Co.),  $.56;  and 
the  Hudson  (Ginn),  $.50.  Everyman's  Library  and  the  Canter- 
bury Poets,  N.  Y.  (Simmons),  $  .40,  contain  editions  of  the  standard 
works. 

E.  A.  Baker,  Sidney's  Arcadia,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $2.00. 

A.  H.  Bullen,  Lyrics  from  Elizabethan  Dramatists,  N.  Y.  (Scrib- 
ner's),  $1.50. 

L.  C.  Elson,  Shakespeare  in  Music,  Bost.  (Page),  $2.00. 

C.  and  M.  Lamb,  Tales  from  Shakespeare,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $  .35  ; 
also  in  Pocket  Classics  (Macmillan),  $  .25.  This  book  should  be  in 
every  school  library. 

H.  A.  Guerber,  Stories  of  Shakespeare's  Tragedies,  N.  Y.  (Bodd), 
$1.25. 


162  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

C.  and  M.  Maud,  Shakespeare's  Stories,  N.  Y.  (Longmans),  $1.50. 
R.  Noel,  Selected  Poems  of  Edmund  Spenser,  N.  Y.  (Simmons), 
$.40. 

C.  S.  Northrup,  Essays  of  Francis  Bacon,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $  .40. 

b.   For  Teachers  and  Others 

The  best  one-volume  editions  of  Shakespeare  are  the  Globe  by 
W.  G.  Clark  and  W.  A.  Wright  (Macmillan),  $1.75,  the  Oxford  by 
W.  J.  Craig  (Oxford  Press),  $2.50,  and  the  Cambridge  Poets  edition 
by  W.  A.  Neilson,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $3.00.  The  most  comprehen- 
sive edition  is  the  Variorum  series  by  H.  H.  Furness,  published  at 
Philadelphia  (Lippincott),  $4.00  per  volume. 

G.  P.  Baker,  The  Development  of  Shakespeare  as  a  Dramatist,  N.  Y. 
(Macmillan),  $1.75.  > 

H.  C.  Beeching,  The  Sonnets  of  Shakespeare,  Boston  (Ginn),  $  .60. 

J.  C.  Collins,  Plays  and  Poems  of  Robert  Greene,  2  vols.,  N.  Y. 
(Oxford  Press),  $5.75.  Other  dramatists  are  in  the  same  series. 

S.  Lee,  Elizabethan  Sonnets,  2  vols.,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $2.50. 

S.  L.  Lee,  Shakespeare  and  the  Modern  Stage,  N.  Y.  (Scribner), 
$2.00. 

Hamilton  W.  Mabie,  William  Shakespeare,  Poet,  Dramatist,  and 
Man,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.00. 

H.  N.  MacCracken,  Introduction  to  Shakespeare,  N.  Y.  (Mac- 
millan), $.90. 

Brand er  Matthews,  A  Study  of  Versification,  Bost.  (Houghton), 
$1.25. 

Brander  Matthews,  Shakespeare  as  a  Playwright,  N.  Y.  (Scribner), 
$3.00. 

R.  Morris,  Works  of  Spenser,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  Globe  ed.,  $1.75. 

W.  A.  Neilson,  The  Chief  Elizabethan  Dramatists,  Bost.  (Hough- 
ton),  $2.75. 

W.  A.  Neilson  and  A.  E.  Thorndike,  The  Facts  about  Shakespeare, 
N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $  .60.  An  indispensable  manual  with  reliable 
bibliography. 

W.  R.  Raleigh,  Shakespeare  (Macmillan),  English  Men  of  Letters 
series,  $  .40  to  $  .75.  Sidney,  Spenser,  Bacon,  etc.,  are  in  the  same 
series  of  biographies. 

T.  Seccombe  and  J.  W.  Allen,  Age  of  Shakespeare,  2  vols.,  N.  Y. 
(Macmillan),  $1.00  ea. 

J.  D.  Wilson,  Life  in  Shakespeare's  England,  N.  Y.  (Putnam's), 
$1.10. 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE  MILTONIC  PERIOD 

1616-1660 

AN  earnest  Puritan  was  John  Stubbs.  He  wrote  an  ac- 
count of  his  "  Disco verie  of  ^.a  Gaping  Gulf  whereinto  Eng- 
land is  like  to  be  swallowed  by  another  Erench  marriage,  if 
the  Lord  forbid  not  the  banns  by  letting  her  Majestie  see  the 
sin  and  punishment  thereof."  His  writing  was  regarded  as  an 
act  of  treason,  and  at  Westminster  a  butcher's  knife  severed 
his  right  hand.  As  with  his  remaining  hand  he  took  off  his 
cap,  Stubbs,  in  an  outburst  of  astounding  loyalty,  shouted 
"  Long  live  Queen  Elizabeth." 

Better,  however,  to  lose  a  hand  than  to  lose  a  head  as  did 
William  Laud,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Both  men  were 
zealous,  both  were  men  of  resolution,  both  met  misfortune 
with  conspicuous  courage  and  dignity.  Evidently  violent 
deeds  cast  shadows  over  England  during  the  sixteenth  and 
the  seventeenth  century.  Let  us  without  bias  or  passion 
glance  at  the  troubles  of  the  Miltonic  period  in  order  to 
understand  the  spirit  of  its  literature. 

Features  of  the  Miltonic  Period.  —  As  it  often  happens  in 
such  a  case,  the  Miltonic  period  is  so  called  because  Milton 
is  its  literary  leader.  In  the  previous  chapter  we  observed 
that  the  Shakespearean  period  was  marked  by  love  of  adven- 
ture in  foreign  lands ;  but  the  Miltonic  period  is  marked  by 
adventure  in  the  homeland,  by  attention  to  the  realities  of 
everyday  life,  a  feature  reflected  so  clearly  upon  the  stage 
of  the  theatres.  The  Shakespearean  period  was  colored  by 

163 


164 


ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 


love  of  the  unknown  in  the  great  outside  world ;  the  Miltonic 
period  is  colored  by  desire  to  explore  the  unknown  within 
each  human  heart. 

Love  of  romance,  so  characteristic  of  the  age  of  Shakespeare, 
gives  way  to  renewed  interest  in  the  details  of  everyday  society. 
Human  society,  however,  is  always  imperfect,  and  in  certain 
moods  we  tend  to  become  dissatisfied. 
Dissatisfaction  with  material  realities 
leads  many  thoughtful  men  to  seek 
consolation  in  spiritual  realities,  and 
this  is  another  of~the~  chiefieatures 
of  life  and  literature  during  the  Mil- 
tonic  or  Puritan  period. 

Social  Divisions  of  Mankind.  - 
Under  different  names  the  Cavalier 
and  Puritan  have  existed  in  all  ages 
of  human  history.  The  former  be- 
holds what  seems  to  be  best  in  the 
past;  the  latter  beholds  what  seems 
to  be  best  in  the  future.  The  one  is 
inclined  to  retain  the  truth  already 
discovered ;  the  other  sees  that  man's 
comprehension  of  truth  is  incomplete. 
The  one  side  believes  that  life  is  a 
compromise ;  the  other  believes  that 
the  ideal  can  be  made  real.  Thus  it 
is  that  men  of  distinct  natures  or  temperaments  range 
themselves  on  opposite  sides  in  politics,  religion,  literature, 
and  all  other  forms  of  social  endeavor. 

The  Puritans.  —  About  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century 
the  term  Puritan  appears  to  have  been  first  applied  to  certain 
members  of  the  Church  of  England.  Those  gentlemen 
objected  to  parts  of  the  church  ritual.  They  desired  a  form 
of  public  worship  more  simple,  one  which  they  believed  to  be 


From  the  Meyrick  Collection 
FIG.  53.  —  A  Cavalier. 


THE  MILTON  1C  PEBIOD 


165 


more  pure.  The  most  radical  of  the  Puritans  came  to  be 
known  as  Independents,  and  they  were  opposed  to  a  national 
church  of  any  kind. 

During  Elizabeth's '  reign  a  sense  of  chivalry  helped  to 
prevent  any  serious  outbreak,  but  during  the  reign  of  James 
I  and  that  of  Charles  I  the  Puritans  became  more  numerous 
and  more  active.  To  America  in  1620  sailed  the  celebrated 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  who  exiled  them- 
selves, ready  to  endure  the  hardships 
of  pioneer  life  in  order  to  enjoy  free- 
dom of  worship  according  to  the  dic- 
tates of  conscience.  A  majority  of 
the  Puritans,  however,  remained  in 
England  and  became  involved  in  the 
Civil  War  of  1642. 

The  Cavaliers.  —  The  term  Cav- 
alier, as  we  all  know,  is  French,  and 
means  a  horseman  or  an  armed  rider. 
The  typical  Cavalier  owned  a  charger 
or  war-horse.  Many  of  the  Cavaliers 
were  satisfied  with  the  forms  of  the 
Established  Church;  others  were 
Catholics.  Both  sections  were  united 
in  loyalty  to  the  throne,  believing 
that  reform  is  preferable  to  revolu- 
tion. Some  of  those  gentlemen  —  English,  Irish,  Welsh, 
Scots  —  found  their  way  to  America,  when  Cromwell  be- 
came master  of  England.  Others,  as  soldiers  of  fortune, 
offered  their  services  to  foreign  rulers,  and  found  graves  far 
away  from  their  homeland. 

Authorized  Version  of  the  Bible.  —  Overlooking  the  river 
Thames  stands  Hampton  Court  Palace.  Early  in  the  reign 
of  James  I  a  conference  was  held  within  one  of  the  oak- 
panelled  chambers  in  order,  if  possible,  to  bring  peace  and 


From  Jeffrey's  Dresses 
FIG.  54.  —  A  Puritan. 


166 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


FIG.  55.  —  Hampton  Court  Palace. 


harmony  to  the  broken  ranks  of  religion.  Much  was  said 
about  imperfections  in  the  existing  translations  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. The  king  himself,  who  was  often  present  at  the 

meetings,  approved  of 
any  plan  that  would 
unite  the  scholars  of  the 
age  in  an  effort  to  pro- 
duce a  satisfactory  trans- 
lation.  Fifty-four 
learned  men  were  chosen, 
most  of  whom  undertook 
the  task.  For  three  years 
they  consulted  with  each 
other  at  Oxford,  Cam- 
bridge, and  Westminster. 
Finally  in  1611  the  outcome  of  their  labors  was  published. 
It  is  commonly  called  the  Authorized  Version,  because  it 
was  printed  under  the  authority  of  its  translators,  ratified 
by  the  Privy  Council  and  the  king. 

Its  Literary  Position.  —  The  general  accuracy  of  this 
translation  and,  above  all,  the  stately  charm  of  the  language 
soon  gave  it  the  preference  over  all  other  versions  in  England. 
In  the  whole  range  of  our  literature  its  prose  is  unequalled  for 
simplicity,  dignity,  and  happy  turns  of  expression.  The 
leading  scholars  of  Cromwell's  day  declared  that  it  was  "  the] 
best  of  any  in  the  world."  Many  of  us  have  become  attached 
to  its  quaint  English  through  childhood  memories.  Thus 
lasting  good  sprang  out  of  the  disputes  between  Cavaliers  and 
Puritans,  both  of  whom  contributed  the  best  of  their  culture 
in  order  to  bring  honor  and  dignity  to  the  religious  instincts  of 
the  nation. 


i 


THE  MILTONIC  PERIOD  167 

1.   DRAMATIC   WRITINGS 

The  Three  Unities.  —  French  critics  of  the  seventeenth 
century  called  attention  to  three  distinct  kinds  of  unity  in 
play  writing  —  unity  of  time,  place,  and  action. 

Believing  that  they  were  following  a  hint  in  Aristotle's 
Poetics,  they  laid  down  the  rule  that  the  events  of  a  play 
ought  to  take  place  within  a  period  of  about  twenty-four 
hours.  Thus  unity  of  time  implied  that  a  character  could  not 
be  a  child  in  one  act,  and  later  appear  on  the  stage  as  an  adult. 

Unity  of  place  required  that  all  the  events  of  a  play  should 
take  place  in  one  country.  A  man  could  not  appear  in  Lon- 
don during  one  act,  and  during  another  act  appear  in  Paris 
or  in  New  York. 

Unity  of  action  means  that  all  the  incidents  of  the  story 
must  cluster  about  a  single  purpose.  Everything  that  hap- 
pens must  lead  on  to  the  catastrophe  or  closing  act  of  the  play. 

Shakespeare  and  almost  all  other  English  playwrights 
paid  no  attention  to  unity  of  time  and  place,  because  they 
could  see  no  good  reason  for  such  arbitrary  rules.  Unity 
of  action,  however,  is  essential  in  any  play  anywhere. 

Choir-boys  as  Actors.1  —  On  the  English  stage  boy-actors 
for  a  time  were  more  popular  even  than  men-players  in  the 
company  of  which  Shakespeare  was  a  member.  The  second 
scene  of  the  second  act  of  Hamlet  shows  that  Shakespeare's 
sympathies  were  naturally  with  the  men,  and  yet  some  of  the 
foremost  dramatists  wrote  plays  specially  for  the  choir-boy 
actors. 

On  the  stage  appeared  members  of  the  juvenile  choirs  of 
the  Chapel  Royal,  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  the  Royal  Chapel 
at  Windsor.  Of  the  three  choirs  the  oldest  is  that  of  the 
Chapel  Royal,  first  mentioned  in  1420.  Even  before  the 

1  J.  A.  Nairn,  "Boy- Actors  under  the  Tudors  and  Stewarts," 
Trans.  Royal  Soc.  of  Lit.,  Lond.,  1913. 


168  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

reign  of  Elizabeth  they  were  at  times  employed  as  actors. 
Lyly  wrote  plays  for  this  boy-company,  and  Peele's  Arraign- 
ment of  Paris  was  also  performed  by  them.  During  the  last 
six  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  a  company  of  them  did  all  the 
acting  at  the  Blackfriars.  They  were  so  popular  that  their 
manager  could  exact  a  price  of  admission  higher  than  that 
of  other  London  theatres. 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Ben  Jonson,  and  others  wrote  for 
the  boy-actors  several  plays,  in  which  singing  was  prominent. 
In  Elizabeth's  time  they  were  commonly  called  Children  of 
the  Chapel,  whereas  James  I  and  Charles  I  knew  them  as 
Children  of  the  Queen's  Revels.  In  1626  they  ceased  to  act 
on  account  of  the  objections  raised  by  the  Puritans. 

Schoolboys  as  Actors.  —  The  second  of  the  chief  classes 
of  boy-actors  belonged  to  Eton,  Westminster,  or  Merchant 
Taylor's  school.  It  was  at  the  last-named  school  that  the 
dramatists  Kyd,  Lodge,  and  Shirley  were  educated.  Udall, 
author  of  Ralph  Roister  Doister,  had  been  headmaster  at 
Eton.  In  1555  he  became  headmaster  of  Westminster. 
In  those  days  every  school  of  importance  presented  plays, 
and  the  Westminster  schoolboys  still  perform  each  Christ- 
mas. 

How  Boys  Affected  Drama.  —  Lyly  and  Peele  prepared 
comedies  to  suit  the  juvenile  actors.  Their  plays  call  for 
quick  wit  and  fancy  rather  than  the  intense  emotion  depicted 
by  men  like  Marlowe  and  Shakespeare.  Of  course,  even  in 
the  plays  of  Marlowe  and  Shakespeare  boys  took  the  women's 
parts,  but  the  bulk  of  the  acting  was  performed  by  men.  No 
women  were  employed  as  actresses  in  England  until  the 
Restoration  period.  In  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Philaster 
Euphrasia  is  disguised  as  a  page,  and  in  the  many  plays  where 
women  appear  in  disguise,  a  boy  could  perhaps  be  trained  to 
play  the  part  more  conveniently  than  a  woman.  During 
the  Shakespearean  and  Miltonic  periods  all  the  women's 


THE  MILTONIC  PERIOD  169 

songs  were  adapted  to  music  that  would  bring  out  the  best 
qualities  of  the  voices  of  the  boy-actors. 

Alliance  of  Religion  and  Drama.  —  Strolling  players,  often 
regarded  as  little  better  than  vagabonds,  were  everywhere  in 
Europe  during  the  centuries  that  succeeded  the  fall  of  the 
western  Roman  Empire.  They  gave  open-air  exhibitions  of 
a  varied  character.  Jugglers,  contortionists,  minstrels,  pan- 
tomime players,  and  others  were  known  to  every  village. 
Besides,  the  people  had  their  own  sports  and  festivals,  some 
of  which,  like  the  Christmas  disguisings,  were  dramatic  in 
character.  This  love  of  the  spectacular  the  church  in  all 
lands  observed  and  tried  to  guide  into  innocent  channels. 
Thus  arose  the  miracle  and  moral  plays  of  Europe. 

Enmity  of  Religion  and  Drama.  —  Gradually  the  earlier 
drama  gave  up  the  patronage  of  the  church  for  that  of  the 
aristocracy.  Kings  and  queens  encouraged  and  moulded 
the  stage  until  in  England  it  attained  its  highest  splendor 
under  Shakespeare.  For  a  time  the  stage  largely  directed 
the  tastes  and  ideals  of  the  nation.  This  is  why  the  Puritan 
forces  ultimately  combined  to  abolish  the  theatre.  Puritan 
influence  had  been  strong  enough  in  London  to  prevent  the 
erection  of  the  first  public  theatre  within  the  city  limits.  In 
1642  all  public  theatres  were  ordered  to  close  their  doors. 
The  Parliamentary  or  Puritan  party  was  conscientiously 
opposed  to  the  stage  because  its  exhibitions  were  not  always 
as  pure  as  they  ought  to  have  been. 

Attitude  of  the  Playwrights.  —  During  the  reign  of  James  I 
the  playwrights  finally  felt  obliged  to  defend  themselves. 
Shakespeare's  later  plays  contain  allusions  to  the  systematic 
attack  upon  the  theatre.  Jonson  and  others  are  more  open 
and  direct.  The  plays  of  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  Mil- 
tonic  period  have  at  times  no  less  imagination,  no  less  stage- 
craft, than  they  had  during  the  Shakespearean  period.  They 
are,  however,  strongly  colored  by  knowledge  of  an  influence 


170  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

that  was  snapping  the  cords  of  sympathy  between  them  and 
the  nation  as  a  whole.  English  drama  possessed  abundance 
of  poetry  as  well  as  a  vigorous  mentality  until  the  Civil  War 
brought  it  to  a  temporary  halt.  After  about  twenty  years  of 
slumber  it  awoke  to  aid  the  drama  of  the  Restoration. 

BEN  JONSON  (1573  ?-1637) 

His  Choicest  Poem.  —  Perhaps  the  finest  poem  ever 
written  by  Ben  Jonson  is  to  be  found  in  one  of  his  collections 
called  Underwoods.  The  simple  beauty  of  this  song  needs 
no  praise. 

See  the  chariot  at  hand  here  of  Love, 

Wherein  my  lady  rideth  ! 

Each  that  draws  is  a  swan  or  a  dove, 

And  well  the  car  Love  guideth. 

As  she  goes,  all  hearts  do  duty 

Unto  her  beauty 

And,  enamoured,  do  wish,  so  they  might 

But  enjoy  such  a  sight,    . 

That  they  still  were  to  run  by  her  side 

Through  swords,  through  seas,  whither  she  would  ride. 

Do  but  look  'on  her  eyes,  they  do  light 

All  that  Love's  world  compriseth  ! 

Do  but  look  on  her  hair,  it  is  bright 

As  Love's  .star  when  it  riseth  ! 

Do  but  mark,  her  forehead's  smoother 

Than  words  that  soothe  her  ! 

And  from  her  arched  brows,  such  a  grace 

Sheds  itself  through  the  face, 

As  alone  there  triumphs  to  the  life 

All  the  gain,  all  the  good,  of  the  elements'  strife. 

His  Career.  —  About  1573,  a  month  after  the  death  of  his 
father,  who  had  been  a  clergyman,  Ben  Jonson  was  born  in 
London.  Two  years  later  his  mother  married  a  master 


THE  MILTON  1C  PERIOD 


171 


bricklayer.  The  child  was  educated  at  a  private  school  and 
then  at  the  Westminster  School.  One  day  the  sturdy  lad 
for  some  reason  left  his  father's  employment  and  served  as  a 
soldier  in  Flanders.  When  he  returned  to  London,  he 
became  an  actor  before  he  began 
to  write  plays.  All  this  occurred 
by  the  time  he  was  twenty  years 
of  age.  When  another  actor  in- 
sulted him,  Jonson  challenged  him 
to  a  duel,  and  killed  the  man  in 
fair  fight.  For  a  time  he  lay  in 
jail. 

Jonson  sprang  into  fame  through 
his  comedy  Every  'Man  in  His 
Humour,  which  in  1598  was  acted 
by  Shakespeare  and  his  associ- 
ates. It  is  a  good-natured  play 
of  everyday  life.  The  characters 
are  types,  each  with  his  humor 
or  ruling  passion.  That  is  to  say, 
by  "  Humour "  the  dramatist 
means  habitual  mood  or  most 
noticeable  peculiarity.  This  play  proved  so  popular  that 
in  1599  Every  Man  Out  of  His  Humour  was  acted  before  the 
queen  by  Shakespeare's  company.  The  latter  was  not  a 
success,  and  Ben  Jonson  blamed  the  players  for  cutting  out 
parts  of  it  to  suit  their  own  pleasure. 

Several  times  in  his  career  the  dramatist  lost  his  temper, 
although  he  was  really  a  kind-hearted  man.  At  the 
Mermaid  Glut?,  founded  by  Raleigh,  Jonson  was  the  leading 
wit  among  a  membership  that  included  Shakespeare  and 
other  brethren  of  the  dramatic  craft.  No  man  had  more 
friends,  because  every  one  believed  that  he  was  manly  and 
conscientious. 


From  portrait  by  Honthorst,  National 
Portrait  Gallery 


Fig.  56.  —  Ben  Jonson. 


172 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Ben  Jonson  became  prosperous  when  James  I  came  to 
the  throne.     In  1613  the  playwright  was  in  Paris,  and  five 

years  later  he  was 
on  a  visit  to  the 
poet  Drummond 
of  Hawthornden 
near  Edinburgh. 
His  ancestors,  who 
must  have  been 
Johnstones,  be- 
longed to  Scot- 
1  an  d.  For  a 
number  of  years 
prior  to  his  death 
in  1637,  the  dram- 
atist had  been 
receiving  a  pen- 
sion from  James  I 
and  from  his  son 
Charles  I.  Over 
the  grave  in  West- 
minster Abbey  is 
a  stone  on  which 
carved  —  "  O 
Ben  Jon- 


FIG.  57.  —  Hawthornden,  Home  of  Drummond. 


IS 

rare 
son.' 


The  Comedies.  —  Jonson's  works,  about  fifty  in  all,  include 
comedies,  masques,  tragedies,  and  prose.  The  comedy  of 
Elizabethan  or  Shakespearean  days  is  distinct  from  that  of 
James  I  and  his  son,  and  it  was  Ben  Jonson  who  introduced 
the  change.  He  created  realistic  comedy,  setting  forth  with 
great  detail  the  social  conditions  of  London  and  of  England  in 
general.  His  plots  are  carefully  constructed  in  order  to 
bring  out  the  "  Humours  "  or  class  peculiarities  of  society. 


THE  MILTONIC  PERIOD  173 

The  Case  is  Altered  (1599),  like  The  Poetaster  (1601),  was 
acted  by  the  Children  of  the  Chapel  Royal.  The  latter  is  an 
attack  upon  men-actors. 

The  best  of  the  comedies  include  Volpone,  or  the  Fox  (1605) 
and  The  Alchemist  (1610),  the  latter  of  which  has  among  its 
characters  two  ^Puritans  named  Ananias  and  Tribulation 
Wholesome.  The  manly  nature  of  Jonson  detested  shams, 
and  with  a  great  variety  of  fun  and  satire  he  set  forth  his  most 
original  plot  in  Bartholomew  Fair  (1614).  Possibly  this  play 
gave  Bunyan  a  hint  for  the  Vanity  Fair  of  his  Pilgrim's 
Progress.  A  Tale  of  a  Tub  (1633)  deals  with  country 
manners  and,  casually,  with  the  usages  of  St.  Valentine's  Day. 

Jonson's  unfinished  historical  drama,  The  Sad  Shepherd,  is 
of  uncertain  date.  It  leads  us  into  the  country  to  mingle 
with  Robin  Hood  and  his  merry  men.  One  of  its  poetic 
passages  runs  thus : 

Here  she  was  wont  to  go  !  and  here  !  and  here  ! 
Just  where  these  daisies,  pinks  and  violets  grow ; 
The  world  may  find  the  Spring  by  following  her, 
For  other  print  her  airy  steps  ne'er  left. 
Her  treading  would  not  bend  a  blade  of  grass, 
Or  shake  the  downy  bluebell  from  his  stalk  ! 

-  Act  I,  Sc.  i. 

The  Masques.  —  Masques  and  other  entertainments  were 
in  demand  by  the  Court,  and  Jonson  proved  to  be  the  most 
gifted  writer  of  literary  masques  as  well  as  of  realistic  come- 
dies. In  earlier  days  the  masque  was  a  form  of  disguising 
with  aristocratic  amateurs  as  the  players.  Dance,  music, 
and  gorgeous  scenery  were  among  its  chief  elements.  When 
dialogue  was  introduced,  the  masque  became  literary. 
Jonson  possessed  the  inventiveness,  the  readiness  to  adapt 
himself  to  circumstances,  the  poetic  genius  necessary  to  the 
highest  success.  Drawing  from  his  vast  stores  of  learning,  he 
skillfully  shaped  the  material  to  suit  the  tastes  of  royalty 


174  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

and  the  nobility.  Most  of  his  later  efforts  are  comic 
masques  or  anti-masques. 

Some  of  the  best  masques  are  Queens  (1609),  praised  by  the 
poet  Swinburne  as  "  the  most  splendid  of  all  masques  "  ;  The 
Irish  Masque  (1613-1614),  chiefly  in  Irish  dialect;  Pleasure 
Reconciled  to  Virtue  (1618),  with  Gomus  as  one  of  the  charac- 
ters; Discovered  in  the  Moon  (1620-1621);  Loves  Triumph 
(1631),  in  which  Charles  I  acted;  Chloridia  (1631-1632), 
presented  by  the  queen  and  her  ladies. 

The  Tragedies.  —  The  classical  tragedies  of  Ben  Jonson 
are  much  more  accurate,  though  less  inspired,  than  those  of 
Shakespeare. 

The  world  knows  only  two,  that's  Rome  and  I. 

My  roof  receives  me  not ;   'tis  air  I  tread ; 

And,  at  each  step,  I  feel  my  advanced  head 

Knock  out  a  star  in  heaven  !     Rear'd  to  this  height, 

All  my  desires  seem  modest,  poor,  and  slight, 

That  did  before  sound  impudent.  —  Sejanus,  Act  V,  Sc.  i. 

These  are  the  words  of  a  man  who  is  so  carried  away  by 
insolence  that  his  fall  is  certain.  He  is  Sejanus,  the  favorite 
of  the  crafty  Emperor  Tiberius,  whose  complex  character  is 
vividly  portrayed  in  Jonson's  earlier  tragedy.  The  terror 
of  those  bygone  days  is  challenged  by  Sejanus  in  this  speech  : 

How  vain  and  vile  a  passion  is  this  fear ; 
What  base  uncomely  things  it  makes  men  do  ! 
Suspect  their  noblest  friends,  as  I  did  this, 
Flatter  poor  enemies,  entreat  their  servants, 
Stoop,  court,  and  catch  at  the  benevolence 
Of  creatures  unto  whom,  within  this  hour, 
I  would  not  have  vouchsaf'd  a  quarter-look. 

—  Act  V,  Sc.  viii. 

The  playwright's  most  important  prose  work  bears  the 
strange  title  Timber,  but-  it  is  no  wooden  or  dull  production, 


THE  MILTONIC  PERIOD  175 

for  it  contains  much  sound  criticism  of  Bacon  and  other  men 
of  letters. 

Jonson's  Literary  Position.  — .Courage,  perfect  indepen- 
dence, and  an  eye  for  life's  humbugs  are  among  the  qualities 
of  Jonson  as  a  man.  No  one  who  has  read  his  works  can 
fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  vast  extent  of  his  reading.  He 
is  one  of  the  three  most  thorough  scholars  among  English 
poets,  the  two  others  being  Milton  and  Gray.  Indeed,  if 
Jonson  had  ignored  some  of  the  restrictions  of  ancient  classi- 
cal drama,  he  might  have  attained  even  greater  distinction. 
As  it  is,  he  is  surpassed  by  Shakespeare  alone  in  English 
dramatic  literature.  He  had  a  high  conception  of  the 
dramatic  craft,  and  he  never  spared  pains  to  realize  his 
ideals  even  at  the  cost  of  popularity. 

Beaumont  (1584-1616)  and  Fletcher  (1579-1625).  — -When 
the  unfortunate  Mary,  Queen  of  ScotspwasHbeheaded  by 
order  of  her  cousin  Elizabeth,  the 
chaplain  at  her  execution  was  the 
father  of  John  Fletcher,  the  drama- 
tist. Five  years  older  than  his  friend 
Beaumont,  Fletcher  lived  until  the 
end  of  the  reign  of  James  I.  Francis 
Beaumont  studied  at  Cambridge, 
Fletcher  at  Oxford.  They  arv  usually 

mentioned       together,      because      they      From  an  engraving  by  H.Robinson 

were   partners  in  so   many  produc-     Fl^.  58.  —  Francis  Beau- 
tions.       .  mont- 

Among  the  many  plays  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  is 
Philaster,  a  tragi-comedy  named  after  its  hot-headed  jealous 
hero.  Arethusa  is  a  noble  type  of  womanhood  who,  like 
many  another  good  woman,  endures  with  patience  more  than 
one  phase  of  masculine  stupidity.  The  character  that 
arouses  our  keenest  sympathy  is  Bellario,  the  maiden  Eu- 
phrasia  disguised  as  a  page.  In  none  of  the  plays  is  there  a 


176  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


more  pathetic  creation.  In  Fletcher's 
herdgss  are  some  beautiful  scenes  presented  with  brilliant 
imaginative  power.  This  pastoral  drama  enjoys  the  dis- 
tinction of  having  suggested  Milton's  Comus.  Most  of  the 
plays  contain  songs  that  are  well  worthy  of  any  dramatist. 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher  profited  greatly  through  knowledge 
of  the  work  of  other  playwrights.  Fluent  and  lucid  in  style, 
they  achieved  a  popularity  that 
lasted  for  years  subsequent  to  their 
death.  As  a  rule,  their  works  may 
be  said  to  appeal  to  sentiment  rather 
than  to  delineate  the  inner  workings 
of  human  character.  In  spite  of  the 
poetic  beauty  of  their  diction,  they 
seemed  to  lack  that  seriousness  of 
purpose,  without  which  most  writers 

From  an  engraving  by  H.  Robinson       ^       r 

FIG.  59.  —  John  Fletcher.       are  unable  to  stan(l  tne  test  of  time- 

Genius  they  undoubtedly  possessed, 
yet  they  failed  at  times  to  employ  it  to  the  best  advantage. 

John  Ford  (1586-1645?)  came  from  Ilsington  in  Devon- 
shire. His  earliest  surviving  play,  The  Lover's  Melancholy, 
contains  some  beautiful  passages.  It  was  acted  in  1628. 
The  J&oken  Heart,  first  printed  in  1633,  is  a  tragedy  whose 
characters  are  doomed  by  fate.  Ithocles  and  others  are  men 
of  a  truly  noble  disposition.  PwkJw  Wftfheck  wag  superior 
to  any  historical  play  that  had  been  written  since  Shake- 
speare's history  plays  appeared.  Warbeck  is  depicted  as  a 
man  of  dignity  and  resolution.  Ford  exhibits  no  little  sym- 
pathy with  human  misfortune,  and  at  times  his  blank  verse 
attains  both  strength  and  beauty.  He  died  before  the  Civil 
War  came  to  an  end. 

James  Shirley  (1596-1666)  was  a  man  who  had  been  edu- 
cated at  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Beginning  with 
Love^Jjicks  (1624)  he  wrote  many  comedies  on  the  manners 


THE  MILTONIC  PERIOD  177 

of  his  time.  The  Lady  of  Pleasure  (1633),  which  is  re- 
garded as  his  masterpiece,  portrays  the  amusing  Lady 
Bornwell. 

In  1637  he  accompanied  the  Earl  of  Strafford  to  Dublin, 
where  for  three  years  he  wrote  plays.  The  Bird  in  a  Cage 
contains  some  satire  against  Puritanism.  It  was  in  Dublin 
that  he  wrote  St.  Patrick  for  Ireland,  a  sort  of  sacred  comedy 
containing  many  passages  of  distinct  charm.  TJ&^ajidmal 
is  the  best  of  his  tragedies.  Shirley  continued  to  write  till 
about  1640  or  later,  and  when  the  Civil  War  broke  out,  he 
served  on  the  Loyalist  or  Cavalier  side  under  his  patron,  the 
Earl  of  Newcastle.  When  the  war  was  over,  he  became  a 
schoolmaster.  In  1659  he  published  The  Contention  of 
Ajax  and  Ulysses,  one  of  the  best-known  masques.  The 
great  fire  of  London  in  1666  gave  him  and  his  wife  such  a 
shock  that  they  both  died  the  same  day. 

The  author  of  about  forty  plays,  Shirley  was  no  weakling. 
The  plots  were  so  carefully  constructed  that  his  plays  were 
popular  for  years.  He  was  endowed  with  the  gift  of  humor  as 
well  as  imagination,  and  his  dramatic  works  possessed  suffi- 
cient vigor  to  inspire  some  of  the  plays  of  the  Restoration 
period. 

2.  PROSE 

A  dignified  seriousness  is  the  keynote  of  the  prose  of  this 
period.  Prose,  like  poetry,  felt  the  strain  of  an  age  that  was 
embittered  by  wrangling  about  church  affairs. 

Robert  Burton  (1577-1641)  was  a  gentleman  who  lived 
when  a  stately  melancholy  was  fashionable  in  many  places. 
His  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  first  published  in  1621,  analyzes 
the  kinds,  causes,  and  other  details  of  his  theme.  The 
numerous  anecdotes,  curious  learning,  and  sly  humor  make 
this  book  one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  our  literature. 
Readers  ought  to  be  warned  that  the  book  is  of  considerable 


178  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

size,  yet  to  a  person  who  is  not  impatient  the  Anatomy  will 
prove  more  attractive  than  its  title  implies. 

Izaak  Walton  (1593-1683)  went  from  Stafford  to  London, 
where  he  engaged  in  business  as  an  ironmonger  or  dealer  in 
hardware.  The  poet  Donne  was  vicar  of  a  church  in  Walton's 
neighborhood,  and  the  two  men  became  close  friends.  A 
Loyalist  or  Cavalier,  Walton  was  a  man  who  had  no  taste  for 
quarrels.  His  sunny  disposition,  his  piety,  and  his  love  of 
angling  enabled  him  to  endure  with  patience  the  troubled 
years  that  led  to  Cromwell's  supremacy.  His  Compleat 
Angler,  first  published  in  1653,  is  still  as  enjoyable  as  when  it 
first  appeared.  Walton,  with  his  quiet  style  and  genial 
thoughts,  is  as  much  loved  as  he  was  when,  at  the  age  of 
ninety,  he  was  laid  to  rest  at  Winchester  Cathedral. 

Sir  Thomas  Browne  (1605-1682). — Three  centuries 
have  failed  to  dim  the  splendor  of  such  words  as  these  : 

I  cannot  fall  out,  or  contemn  a  man  for  an  error,  or  conceive 
why  a  difference  in  opinion  should  divide  all  affection :  for 
controversies,  disputes,  and  argumentations,  both  in  philosophy 
and  in  divinity,  if  they  meet  with  discreet  and  peaceable 
natures,  do  not  infringe  the  laws  of  charity.  In  all  disputes,  so 
much  as  there  is  of  passion,  so  much  there  is  of  nothing  to  the 
purpose;  for  then  reason,  like  a  bad  hound,  spends  upon  a 
false  scent,  and  forsakes  the  question  first  started.  And  this 
is  one  reason  why  controversies  are  never  determined. 

The  man  who  wrote  these  words  was  Thomas  Browne. 
About  the  year  1635  he  wrote  his  earliest  book,  Religio  Medici 
(Religion  of  a  Physician),  which  attracted  much  attention 
when  it  was  first  published.  He  writes  like  a  gentleman, 
considerate  of  other  people's  feelings.  His  pleasing  style, 
polished  humor,  and  sympathy  single  him  out  as  a  man  who 
will  always  have  admirers. 

The  book  entitled  Vulgar  Errors  (1646)  is  highly  artistic 
and  in  every  way  as  entertaining  as  Burton's  masterpiece. 


THE  MILTON  1C  PERIOD  179 

Even  less  familiar  books  such  as  Urn  Burial  (1658)  are  full  of 
human  interest.  The  latter  contains  the  following  allusion 
to  America : 

The  treasures  of  time  lie  high,  in  urns,  coins,  and  monuments. 
Time  hath  endless  rarities,  and  shows  of  all  varieties;  which 
reveals  old  things  in  heaven,  makes  new  discoveries  in  earth, 
and  even  earth  itself  a  discovery.  That  grand  antiquity, 
America,  lay  buried  for  a  thousand  years ;  and  a  large  part  of 
the  earth  is  still  in  the  urn  unto  us. 

Thomas  Fuller  (1608-1661),  tall,  handsome,  and  kindly 
by  nature,  is  best  remembered  for  his  witty  sayings.  His 
Worthies  of  England,  begun  while  he  was  a  chaplain  for  the 
Cavalier  army,  contains  an  account  of  eminent  Englishmen  as 
well  as  odds  and  ends  about  many  other  topics.  His  Church 
History  and  similar  works  are  not  so  well  known  as  the 
Worthies.  Two  or  three  specimens  of  his  wit  and  wisdom 
are  here  given : 

When  any  one  contradicts  me,  he  raises  my  attention,  not 
my  anger. 

Scoff  not  at  the  natural  defects  of  any,  which  are  not  in  their 
power  to  amend.  Oh  !  'tis  cruelty  to  beat  a  cripple  with  his  own 
crutches. 

Moderation  is  the  silken  string  running  through  the  pearl- 
chain  of  all  virtues. 

Jeremy  Taylor  (1613-1667)  received  his  higher  education 
at  Cambridge.  His  pulpit  oratory  in  London  ceased  when  he 
accompanied  the  Royalist  troops  as  a  chaplain.  He  was 
mprisoned  by  the  Parliamentary  leaders,  and  after  his  release 
he  retired  to  Wales.  There  he  wrote  the  Liberty  of  Prophesy- 
ing (Preaching)  in  1647,  and  his  famous  devotional  works 
Holy  Living  (1650)  and  Holy  Dying  (1651).  Several  times 
Taylor  was  fined  and  imprisoned.  In  1658  he  was  at  Lisburn 
ind  at  Portmore  in  northeastern  Ireland. 


180 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


It  was  two  years  later  that  Taylor  became  Bishop  of  Down 
and  Connor  in  Ireland,  a  position  which  he  held  till  his  death 
at  Lisburn  in  1667.  Although  his  sentences  seem  to  us  rather 
long,  yet  his  style  is  clear  and  lit  up  with  splendid  poetic 
imagery. 

JOHN  BUNYA.N  (1628-1688) 

There  is  magic  in  a  book  that  has  given  pleasure  to  genera- 
tions of  children  for  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  years. 

Never  was  a  better  adventure 
story  written  than  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  and  we  can  scarcely 
conceive  of  a  time  when  young 
people  will  cease  to  follow  with 
breathless  interest  the  Progress 
of  the  Pilgrim.  Translated  into 
many  languages,  this  prose  alle- 
gory has  attracted  all  adults  who 
are  able  to  recognize  literary 
genius. 

Like  Shakespeare  and  Burns, 
John  Bunyan  did  not  enjoy  the 
advantages  of  a  college  educa- 
tion, although  he  was  taught  to 
read  and  write  at  the  Elstow 
school  near  Bedford.  Young 
Bunyan  learned  the  same  trade  as  his  father,  who  was 
a  tinker.  When  he  was  not  working  with  his  father,  he 
shared  in  the  village  sports  and  games.  In  later  years 
he  bitterly  reproached  himself  for  his  tendency  to  swear- 
ing, dancing,  and  Sabbath  breaking. 

As  a  lad  of  seventeen  he  entered  the  Parliamentary  or 
Puritan  army  and  apparently  served  for  about  a  year.  In 
1647  he  married  a  pious  young  woman,  whose  influence  over 


From   painting   by  Sadler,  National 
Portrait  Gallery 


FIG.  60.  —  John  Bunyan. 


THE  MILT  ON  1C  PERIOD 


181 


him  was  ennobling.  Bunyan  sets  forth  his  spiritual  auto- 
biography in  Grace  Abounding  (1666),  a  work  composed  in 
prison.  Vividly  he  depicts  his  mental  anguish  in  boyhood 
days,  his  visions  of  evil 
spirits  and  the  terrors  of 
hell,  until  his  health 
failed  and  he  fancied 
that  he  might  lose  his 
reason.  At  last  he  found 
consolation  and  peace 
through  faith. 

Bunyan  possessed  the 
force,  the  clearness,  and 
the  gift  of  language  so 
necessary  in  public  speak- 
ing. He  began  to  preach 
in  1655.  Five  years  later 
he  was  arrested  for  hold- 
ing "  unlawful  meet- 
ings." In  Bedford  jail 
he  was  allowed  to  read, 
write,  and  preach  as  well 
as  to  support  his  family 
by  his  labor.  Sometimes 
he  was  out  on  parole, 
and  at  last  he  was  released  in  1672  through  the  inter- 
cession of  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  By  this  time  Bunyan 
had  become  one  of  the  most  popular  preachers  in  Eng- 
land, and  for  sixteen  years  he  frequently  addressed  great 
crowds  in  London.  In  1688  he  was  laid  to  rest  in  Bunhill 
cemetery. 

Principal  Works.  —  Bunyan's  chief  works  with  dates  of 
publication  are  Grace  Abounding  (1666)  —  valuable  for  its 
author's  views  of  his  own  conduct ;  The  Pilgrim's  Progress 


From  an  old  print 
FIG.  61.  —  Bunyan's  Birthplace. 


182  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

(1678),  which  may  be  compared  with  the  fifteenth-century 
morality  play  Everyman,  a  picture  of  a  man  struggling  with 
Death  ;  The  Holy  War  (1682),  describing  the  capture  of  the 
city  of  Mansoul  by  Satan  and  its  recovery  by  Immanuel ; 
and  The  Life  and  Death  of  Mr.  B adman  (1680),  in  which  Mr. 
Wiseman  explains  why  Mr.  Badman  has  gone  to  a  place  whose 
climate  is  unsatisfactory.  During  his  boyhood  Mr.  Badman 
found  "  great  pleasure  in  robbing  orchards  and  gardens.77 
In  church  he  either  fell  asleep  or  flirted.  As  a  literary  produc- 
tion this  book  deserves  mention  for  its  simple  language,, 
unconscious  humor,  and  bold  imagery. 

Outline  of  the  Pilgrim's  Progress.  — By  far  the  most 
renowned  of  Bunyan's  religious  allegories  is  The  Pilgrim's 
Progress,  which  is  more  like  Piers  Plowman  than  any  other 
English  work.  The  author  dreams  that  he  sees  a  man  clothed 
in  rags,  with  a  heavy  burden  tied  to  his  back.  The  man  is 
Christian,  and  the  burden  is  his  sense  of  sin.  By  Evangelist's 
advice  he  resolves  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.  After  mak- 
ing his  way  through  the  miry  Slough  of  Despond  he  journeys 
to  the  Wicket  Gate,  sees  the  Interpreter's  House,  and  lingers 
for  two  days  at  the  Palace  Beautiful.  In  the  Valley  of 
Humiliation  he  is  forced  to  fight  with  Apollyon  (Satan). 
In  Vanity  Fair  the  Pilgrim  (Christian)  loses  his  companion 
Faithful,  and  with  Hopeful  he  is  later  seized  and  thrust  into  a 
dungeon  of  the  Giant  Despair.  Within  three  days  they 
escape.  After  a  time  they  enter  the  Land  of  Beulah,  where 
the  songs  of  birds  never  cease,  and  the  sun  shines  day  and] 
night.  Not  far  away  is  the  Celestial  City.  Plainly  seen  are 
its  pavements  of  gold  and  streets  of  pearl,  but  between 
city  and  the  Land  of  Beulah  flows  a  river.  Unending  blissi 
lies  on  the  other  side  —  on  the  other  side  of  that  river,  black| 
and  cold,  over  which  there  is  no  bridge. 

Criticism.  —  Heaven  seems  very  near  and  God  seems  ver; 
dear  by  the  time  Bunyan  has  finished  the  first  part  of  Th 


THE  MILTON  1C    PERIOD  183 

Pilgrim 's  Progress.  Religious  allegories  were  familiar  enough 
in  all  European  countries  long  before  the  seventeenth  century. 
No  doubt,  like  Chaucer  and  others,  Bunyan  obtained  useful 
hints  from  earlier  English  narratives  and  from  translations. 
All  this,  however,  in  no  way  lessens  the  merit  of  his  master- 
piece, in  which  the  phraseology  of  the  Bible  is  skillfully  woven 
into  the  dialogue.  Again  and  again  had  Bunyan  read  the 
Bible  until  it  became  a  part  of  his  nature.  It  is  the  man's 
style  that  charms,  and  it  charms  even  if  we  do  not  care  to 
indorse  all  of  his  opinions.  Bunyan  reaches  the  heart 
because  he  wrote  from  the  heart.  He  put  so  much  life  into 
his  narrative  that  it  is  still  alive. 

3.   NON-DRAMATIC  POETRY 

Some  of  the  people  who  take  pride  in  the  classics  of  an- 
cient Greece  and  Rome  do  not  appreciate  the  qualities  that 
make  a  writing  classic  or  first-class  or  standard.  Classic 
writers  are  clear  and  concise.  This  is  not  always  the  case 
with  the  poets  of  the  Mil-tonic  period.  In  those  days,  as  in 
Shakespeare's  time,  almost  every  gentleman  could  write 
verses  of  some  sort.  It  was  the  fashion. 

John  Donne  (1573-1631)  studied  at  Oxford.  In  his 
twenty-third  year  he  sailed  with  Essex  to  fight  against  the 
Spaniards  at  Cadiz  in  Spain,  and  then  to  waylay  and  loot 
Spanish  treasure  ships.  In  1600  Donne  secretly  married  his 
cousin  Anne,  daughter  of  Sir  George  More.  This  hasty 
marriage  led  to  his  imprisonment  and  to  other  troubles.  In 
1614  the  poet  forsook  his  worldly  life  and  became  a  clergyman. 
Nine  years  before  his  death  in  1631  he  preached  before  the 
Virginia  Company  and  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  most 
thoughtful  pulpit  orators  of  the  day. 

Donne's  poems  may  be  divided  into  (1)  songs  and  sonnets; 
(2)  marriage  songs;  (3)  elegies;  (4)  satires  and  epigrams; 


184  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

(5)  religious  verse.     Noble  lines  are  on  almost  every  page  of 
his  works.     There  is  quaint  beauty  in  — 

I  long  to  talk  with  some  old  lover's  ghost, 

or  — 

Her  pure  and  eloquent  blood 

Spoke  in  her  deeds,  and  so  distinctly  wrought, 

That  one  might  say  her  body  thought, 

or  in  the  marriage  song  for  Princess  Elizabeth  on  St.  Valen- 
tine's day, 

Hail  Bishop  Valentine,  whose  day  this  is ; 

All  the  air  is  thy  diocese, 

And  all  the  chirping  choristers 
And  other  birds  are  thy  parishioners ; 

or  the  lines  in  The  Litany  - 

O  thou,  who  Satan  heard 'st  in  Job's  sick  day, 
Hear  thyself  now,  for  Thou  in  us  dost  pray. 

Donne  is  a  poet  of  varied  genius,  whose  oddities  of  phrase 
and  thought  repel  some  readers  and  attract  others.  There 
is  a  charm  about  the  man  and  his  work.  He  is  full  of  sur- 
prises because  he  is  independent  in  style.  He  is  a  rebel  in 
the  ranks  of  the  poets,  caring  little  about  the  imagery  and  the 
ideas  of  the  older  writers.  He  seems  to  begin  as  if  poetry 
had  never  been  written  before,  and  naturally  he  has  had 
many  imitators. 

Cavalier  Lyrics.  —  Many  lyrics  of  high  merit  were  com- 
posed during  the  days  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton.  One 
that  is  still  sung  is  Ben  Jonson's  To  Celia,  beginning  "  Drink 
to  me  only  with  thine  eyes/7  Most  of  the  more  memorable 
songs  and  other  lyrics  of  the  Miltonic  period  were  written  by 
Royalist§^or  Cavaliers.  Some  of  the  Cavaliers  forgot  their 
troubles  in  witty  or  sentimental  song,  while  others  found 
consolation  in  religious  lyrics.  As  the  Civil  War  grew  more 
bitter,  both  Cavalier  and  Puritan  satire  became  common. 


THE  M1LTONIC  PERIOD  185 


Secular  Lyric  Poets 

Thomas  Carew  (1590?-!  639),  like  Ben  Jonson,  took  pains 
with  his  work.  If  less  impassioned  than  some  of  the  other 
poets,  most  of  his  versification  is  polished,  as  in  Persuasions 

to  Love. 

For  that  lovely  face  will  fail, 

Beauty's  sweet,  but  beauty's  frail ; 
Tis  sooner  past,  'tis  sooner  done 
Than  summer's  rain  or  winter's  sun. 

Robert  Herrick  (1591-1674),  a  Devonshire  clergyman, 
wrote  delightful  poems  on  country  life.  His  most  melodious 
verses  are  not  religious,  although  the  collection  called  Noble 
Numbers  sparkles  with  the  joy  of  the  gospel  as  good  news. 
How  natural  and  direct,  for  instance,  is  A  Thanksgiving  to 

God. 

Low  is  my  porch,  as  is  my  fate, 

Both  void  of  state ; 
And  yet  the  threshold  of  my  door 

Is  worn  by  th'  poor, 
Who  thither  come  and  freely  get 

Good  words  or  meat. 

All  of  Herrick's  verses  were  written  simply  as  an  expression 
of  his  own  genial  playful  disposition.  In  variety  and  elegance 
of  versification  he  is  the  most  original  of  this  group  of  poets, 
ever  joyous  and  musical  in  spite  of  an  occasional  undertone  of 
regret.  A  great  collection  of  English  songs  is  the  Hesperides, 
songs  composed  in  the  west,  that  is,  in  Devonshire.  Dearly 
he  loved  children  and  flowers,  as  we  see  in  the  opening  lines 
of  To  Primroses  Filled  With  Morning  Dew. 

Why  do  ye  weep,  sweet  babes  !     Can  tears 

Speak  grief  in  you, 

Who  were  but  born 
Just  as  the  modest  morn 
Teemed  her  refreshing  dew  ? 


186  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Sir  John  Suckling  (1609-1642),  officer  of  a  troop  of  horse, 
which  he  equipped  at  his  own  expense,  was  a  jovial  poet  as 
well  as  a  dashing  soldier.  Here  is  one  of  his  songs. 

Hast  thou  seen  the  down  in  the  air 

When  wanton  blasts  have  tost  it  ? 
Or  the  ship  on  the  sea, 

When  ruder  winds  have  crost  it  ? 
Hast  thou  mark'd  the  crocodiles  weeping 

Or  the  foxes  sleeping  ? 
Oh  !  so  fickle ;  Oh  !  so  vain ;  Oh  !  so  false,  so  false  is  she  ! 

Richard  Lovelace  (1618-1658),  one  of  the  most  versatile  of 
men,  served  as  an  officer  of  Charles  I,  and  in  1646  was 
wounded  in  France.  Some  of  his  poems,  dashed  off  in  a 
hurry,  are  mediocre ;  others  need  no  man's  praise.  This  is  a 
stanza  of  To  Lucasta,  Going  Beyond  the  Seas. 

Though  seas  and  land  betwixt  us  both, 

Our  faith  and  troth, 
Like  separated  souls, 
All  time  and  space  controls : 
Above  the  highest  sphere  we  meet, 
Unseen,  unknown,  and  greet  as  angels  greet. 

Religious  Lyric  Poets 

George  Herbert  (1593-1632)  passed  his  childhood  days  at 
Montgomery  Castle,  in  Wales.  His  saintly  life  and  devo- 
tional poems  appealed  to  both  Royalists  and  Puritans.  Some 
of  his  own  fine  hymns  he  sang  to  the  lute  or  viol.  Herbert's 
style  tends  to  be  rather  fanciful  like  that  of  Donne,  but  The 
Temple,  a  collection  published  in  1633,  proved  to  be  very 
popular.  This  is  the  last  stanza  of  the  Matin  Hymn. 

Teach  me  thy  love  to  know  ; 
That  this  new  light,  which  now  I  see, 
May  both  the  work  and  workman  show ; 
Then  by  a  sunbeam  I  will  climb  to  Thee. 


THE  MILT  ON  1C  PERIOD  187 

Richard  Crashaw  (1613?-1650)  was  expelled  from  Cam- 
bridge in  1644,  when  the  authorities  failed  to  approve  of 
his  religious  beliefs.  If  he  had  not  followed  the  poetic 
fashion  of  his  day,  if  he  had  been  less  under  Donne's  influence, 
Crashaw's  real  power  might  have  asserted  itself  more  pleas- 
ingly. Steps  to  the  Temple,  one  of  his  volumes,  contains  A 
Hymn  of  the  Nativity  (Birth  of  Jesus).  In  it  are  these 
notable  lines : 

Gloomy  night  embraced  the  place 

Where  the  noble  infant  lay : 
The  babe  looked  up,  and  showed  his  face ; 

In  spite  of  darkness  it  was  day. 

Henry  Vaughan  (1622-1695),  who  was  reared  at  Newton 
St.  Bridget  in  South  Wales,  studied  medicine  and  later  lived 
at  Brecknock.  In  his  verses  are  many  charming  phrases. 
Vaughan's  reputation  rests  upon  one  of  his  volumes,  Silex 
Scintillans  (Sparkling  Flint) .  Here  is  a  stanza  from  his  poem 
called  Departed  Friends. 

And  yet  as  angels  in  some  brighter  dreams 

Call  to  the  soul  when  man  doth  sleep, 
So  some  strange  thoughts  transcend  our  wonted  themes, 

And  into  glory  peep. 


JOHN  MILTON  (1608-1674) 

Bread  Street,  London,  was  the  birthplace  of  John  Milton. 
His  father  was  a  shrewd  man  of  some  culture,  rich  enough  to 
have  a  tutor  to  supervise  his  son's  studies  at  home.  In  his 
twelfth  year  young  Milton  was  sent  to  St.  Paul's  School. 
Night  after  night,  when  his  prescribed  school  tasks  were  over, 
he  read  Latin  and  Greek  and  other  books  long  after  his  par- 
ents had  retired.  In  1624  he  went  to  Christ's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, where  his  appearance,  his  silken  light  hair,  and  his 


188 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Portrait  drawn  and  engraved  by  Faithorn 
when  Milton  was  62 


„ 

FIG.  62.  —  John  Milton. 


reserve  gained  for  him  the  nick- 
name "  The  Lady  of  Christ's." 

We  may  omit  Milton's  boyish 
experiments  in  verse,  because  in 
his  twenty-first  year  he  evolved 
h.js  first  miracle  of  sustained 
thought  and  melody.  Immortal 
is  the  ode  On  the  Morning  of 
Christ's  Nativity  (1629)  .  Milton, 
a  musician  like  his  father,  had 
an  ear  sensitive  to  tones  and 
shades  of  tone.  He  plays  on 

the  vowels  as  on  the  strings  of  a 
violin.     Soft  are  the  notes  of  the 

.  . 

hymn  at  its  opening.  How  it 
swells,  stanza  after  stanza,  till  it  echoes  the  song  of  the 
angels,  then  slowly  it  falls  during  the  flight  of  ancient 
nymphs  and  deities  until  it  sinks  into  repose. 

In  1632  Milton  had  his  Mas- 
ter's degree,  and  then  he  spent 
about  six  years  in  his  father's 
country  house  at  Horton  in  Buck- 
inghamshire. Doubtless  it  was 
during  this  period  that  the  land- 
scape pictures,  especially  of  the 
fourth  book  of  Paradise  Lost, 
were  etched  on  his  brain  —  gentle 
labors  amid  vine  and  orchard, 
sweet  scenes  of  rosy  morn  and 
silver  moon,  crowned  with  the 
halo  of  poetic  fancy.  At  all 
events  the  next  poems  are  the  Fr 
direct  outcome  of  this  happy 

.      ^  w      FIG.  63.  —  Milton  at  the  Age 

season  in  the  country.  Of  21. 


THE  MILTONIC  PERIOD  189 

V Allegro  (1634).— The  title  L?  Allegro  is  Italian  for  The 
Cheerful  Man.  The  poem  is  a  study  in  mood  or  temperament 
or  "  humour/7  as  Ben  Jonson  has  called  it.  L'Allegro  repre- 
sents any  person  in  a  cheerful  mood.  The~p6et  is  still  un- 
soured  by  public  debate  or  private  troubles.  The  young 
Puritan  finds  no  fault  with  the  youths  and  maids  dancing  to 
the  "  jocund  rebeck,"  as  the  bow  glides  over  its  three  strings. 
He  is  pleased  with  the  folk-lore  about  fairies  and  brownies, 
and  even  with  the  drama  of  Ben  Jonson  and  Shakespeare. 
Again  Milton  has  written  a  poem  virtually  without  a  flaw, 
exhibiting  the  same  unity  as,  and  a  more  subtle  beauty  of  style 
than,  The  Nufimfy.  Most  of  us  recall  the  lines  that  echo  the 
dance  measure : 

Come,  and  trip  it  as  ye  go 

On  the  light  fantastic  toe,  — 33-34. 

or  the  reference  to  poetic  delight  — 

In  notes,  with  many  a  winding  bout 

Of  linked  sweetness  long  drawn  out.  — 139-140. 

II  Penseroso  (1634). — The  Italian  title  II  Penseroso 
means  The  Thoughtful  or  Pensive  One.  Like  the  preceding 
poem  it  has  some  of  the  fragrance  of  older  English,  Greek, 
and  Italian  poetry,  and  yet  it  is  essentially  original.  In 
form  it  is  beyond  reproach.  It  represents  the  poet  or  any 
other  person  in  a  thoughtful  or  serious  mood,  as  L 'Allegro 
portrays  the  other  side  of  nature  and  human  nature.  Some 
of  the  lines  in  //  Penseroso  are  familiar.  For  instance,  — 

Come,  pensive  nun,  devout  and  pure, 

Sober,  steadfast,  and  demure,  — 31-32. 
or- 

Where  glowing  embers  through  the  room 

Teach  light  to  counterfeit  a  gloom,  —  79-80. 
or  — 

Of  forests  and  enchantments  drear, 

Where  more  is  meant  than  meets  the  ear.  —  119-120. 


190  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Arcades  and  Comus.  —  Three  other  works  were  composed 
at  Horton.  Arcades  (1634)  is  a  short  pastoral  masque,  whose 
name  is  much  the  same  as  Sidney's  Arcadia.  Originally 
performed  before  the  Dowager-Countess  of  Derby,  it  consists 
of  three  songs  and  a  speech. 

nnm.iiji  (Ifr'H)  i*  t.hft_greatest  of  all  English  jmasyies.  Its 
plot  runs  thus :  A  beautiful  lady,  lost  at  night  in  a  British 
wood,  is  in  the  power  of  the  magician  Comus  (Revelry) .  Her 
brothers  search  for  her  in  vain  until  a  kindly  spirit  appears  in 
the  guise  of  a  shepherd.  He  gives  them  an  herb  by  whose 
means  they  are  able  to  defy  enchantment.  They  dash  into 
the  palace,  rescue  their  sister,  and  put  to  flight  Comus  and 
his  rabble. 

This  masque  was  acted  at  Ludlow  Castle  by  the  family  of 
the  Earl  of  Bridgewater,  President  of  Wales.  Never  has  the 
theme  of  chastity  been  sung  to  nobler  music  of  blank  verse 
and  lyric  eloquence.  One  well-known  passage  may  illustrate 
the  style. 

He  that  has  light  within  his  own  clear  breast 
May  sit  i'  the  center,  and  enjoy  bright  day, 
But  he  that  hides  a  dark  soul,  and  foul  thoughts, 
Benighted  walks  under  the  mid-day  sun ; 
Himself  is  his  own  dungeon.  —  381-385. 

Lycidas.  —  Early  in  1638  Milton  published  Lycidas,  the 
last  of  the  Horton  poems.  It  is  a  pastoral  elegy  upon  the 
death  of  Edward  King,  who  was  drowned  in  crossing  the 
Irish  Sea.  Milton  and  King  are  represented  as  shepherds, 
though  they  were  really  college  friends,  and  there  is  perhaps 
no  form  of  friendship  so  intimate,  so  tender,  so  memo- 
rable. 

Lycidas  is  less  popular  than  Tennyson's  In  Memoriam. 
The  music  of  Milton's  poem  is  most  harmonious,  but  his 
grief  might  appear  more  convincing  without  the  repeated 
classical  allusions  and  without  the  threat  of  the  headsman's 


THE  MILTON  1C  PERIOD  191 

axe  for  religious  discord.     This  great  poem  is  touched  with 
pathos  in  the  lines  - 

But  oh  !  the  heavy  change,  now  thou  art  gone, 

Now  thou  art  gone,  and  never  must  return  !  —  37-38. 

and  — 

Aye  me  !  whilst  thee  the  shores  and  sounding  seas 
Wash  far  away  where'er  thy  bones  are  hurled.     154-155. 

Milton's  First  Marriage.  —  In  1638  Milton  went  on  a  visit 
to  Italy.  The  desire  to  write  an  epic  poem  had  long  been  in 
his  mind,  and  it  grew  stronger  in  Italy.  He  thought  of  the 
story  of  Arthur  as  a  theme,  but  on  his  return  home  the  follow- 
ing year  he  began  to  devote  himself  to  the  education  of  his 
nephews,  to  sonnets,  and  to  prose.  When  the  war  broke  out 
in  1642  Milton,  unlike  so  many  other  poets  of  this  period, 
did  not  volunteer  to  serve  in  one  of  the  English  armies. 
In  1643  he  married  Mary  Powell,  whose  family  were  Loyalists 
or  Cavaliers.  A  month's  gloom  sent  the  young  bride  back 
to  her  parents  for  about  two  years,  when  Milton  and  his  wife 
became  reconciled.  Three  daughters  were  born  before  she 
died  in  1652. 

Prose  Works.  —  It  was  during  the  absence  of  his  bride  that 
he  wrote  four  prose  works  in  favor  of  divorce.  About  the 
same  time  he  wrote  the  Areopagitica  (1644),  which  advocates 
liberty  of  printing  or  freedom  of  the  press.  Its  title,  of 
course,lneahs  facts  pertaining  to  Areopagus,  the  hill  on  which 
the  highest  court  of  ancient  Athens  met.  Milton's  real 
meaning  is  that  it  contains  facts  of  interest  to  England's 
highest  court,  the  Parliament. 

Among  the  j3Tfla£~pa,m  ph  I  ets  may  be  mentioned  The  Tenure 
of  Kings,  published  in  1649.  In  this  work  Milton  endeavors 
to  show  that  Charles  I  deserved  to  meet  the  fate  which  had 
befallen  his  grandmother  Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.  Within  a 
month  of  its  publication  Milton  was  appointed  as  Foreign  or 


192 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Latin  Secretary  of  England,  Latin  being  then  the  language 
of  diplomacy  as  French  is  to-day.  Cromwell  and  Milton 
were  now  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  politics,  for  the 
Puritans  were  in  full  control  of  the  English  government. 

Sonnets.  —  One  of  the  noblest  and  best  known  of  Milton's 
sonnets  deals  with  the  blindness  that  came  upon  him  in  1652, 


FIG.  64.  —  Cromwell  visits  Milton. 


Hurlbut  Collection 


the  year  of  his  first  wife's  death.  He  wrote  the  twenty-three 
sonnets  at  intervals,  most  of  them  being  formed  after  the 
style  of  Petrarca  or  Petrarch,  the  illustrious  Italian  sonnet- 
writer.  Among  English  writers  Shakespeare  alone  is  superior 
to  Milton  in  this  class  of  poetry. 

Later    Years.  —  Milton's    second    marriage    in    1656   to 
Katharine  Woodcock  ended  with  her  death  fifteen  months 


THE  MILTONIC  PERIOD  193 

later.  Again  and  again  he  bitterly  assailed  his  opponents 
until  the  restoration  of  monarchy  in  1660.  The  poet  then  be- 
came so  nervous  that  he  hid  for  a  time,  but  he  was  treated 
with  a  generosity  that  he  had  sometimes  denied  to  others.  In 
1663  Elizabeth  Minshull  became  his  third  wife.  Four  years 
later  he  published  Paradise  Lost.  In  1671  appeared  Paradise 
Regained  and  Samson  Agonistes.  Three  years  afterward 
Milton  was  buried  in  St.  Giles  Church,  Cripplegate,  London. 

The  Subject  and  the  Object  of  Paradise  Lost.  —  The 
subject  or  theme  of  Paradise  Lost  is  Man,  as  he  might  have 
been  and  as  he  is.  Adam,  the  representative  of  mankind,  is 
supposed  to  be  the  "Hero;  but  heis  as  completely  over- 
'  shadowed  by  the  proud  figure~oF~5atan  as  the  Merchant  of 
Venice  is  overshadowed  by  Shylock. 

The  object  or  purpose  of  this  religious  epic  is  to  "justify 
the  ways  of  God  to  man."  The  poet's  exposition  of  his  pur- 
pose, as  set  forth  in  twelve  sections  or  books,  has  brought 
forth  a  variety  of  comments  from  scholarly  readers.  Para- 
dise, of  course,  is  man's  innocence  in  the  garden  of  Eden. 

Plot  of  the  Epic.  —  The  opening  scene,  after  a  few  lines  of 
introduction,  is  in  hell,  where  we  behold  the  rebel  angels  who 
have  been  driven  from  heaven,  as  suggested  in  the  last  book 
of  the  Xew  Testament.  The  archangel  Satan,  lost  through 
foo^much  ambition,  summons  the  millions""of  fallen  angels" 
around  him  on  the  shore  of  the  lake  of  fire.  Then  comes  what 
is  perhaps  the  most  inspired  line  of  blank  verse  that  Milton 
ever  composed.  Satan's  heart  is  touched  when  he  thinks  of 
the  tragedy  in  which  their  loyalty  to  him  has  involved  them. 
He  tries  to  address  the  fallen  angels  — 

Thrice  he  assayed,  and  thrice,  in  spite  of  scorn, 
'Tears  such  as  angels  weep  burst  forth.  — Bk.  I,  619-620. 

Book  II.  —  The  lost  angels  resolve  to  seek  revenge  against 
God  by  corrupting  the  human  creatures  made  in  the  divine 
image. 


194  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Book  III.  —  Satan  himself  finds  his  way  to  earth. 

Book  IV.  —  He  enters  the  Paradise  of  our  first  parents. 

Book  V.  —  God  sends  Raphael,  a  heavenly  messenger,  to 
warn  Adam. 

Book  VI.  —  Raphael  tells  how  Messiah,  God's  Son,  had 
'  vanquished  Satan  in  the  war  of  Heaven. 

Book  VII.  —  Raphael  relates  to  Adam  why  this  world  was 
created. 

Book  VIII. — Adam  gives  Raphael  his  impressions  of  Para- 
dise and  of  the  lovely  Eve. 

Book  IX. — Satan  tempts  Eve  to  eat  of  the  forbidden  fruit, 
which  she  shares  with  Adam. 

Book  X.  —  God  sends  his  Son  to  judge  the  two  transgres- 
sors, and  Satan  returns  to  hell. 

Book  XI.  —  Our  first  parents,  though  penitent,  are  to  be 
expelled  from  Paradise. 

Book  XII.  —  The  angel  Michael  forecasts  earthly  events, 
promising  Adam  a  divine  Redeemer  for  mankind.  Eve 
makes  the  final  .speech  of  the  poem,  and  then  - 

They,  hand  in  hand,  with  wandering  steps  and  slow, 
Through  Eden  took  their  solitary  way.  —  648-649. 

Criticism  of  the  Epic. — Many  passages  are  worth  memoriz- 
ing. In  the  first  book  are  the  familiar  lines  — 

The  mind  is  its  own  place,  and  in  itself 
\\  Can  make  a  Heaven  of  Hell,  a  Hell  of  Heaven.  —  254-255. 

Paradise  Lost.csin  scarcely  be  called  popular,  partly  because 
public  taste  now  prefers  novels  to  epics,  yet  the  first  two  books 
of  this  poem  are  far  more  thrilling  and  profitable  than  most 
novels  now  being  written.  If  Milton  had  possessed  a  sense 
of  humor,  Adam  might  noiTTiave  been  permitted  to  weary 
Eve  with  long  speeches.  Like  Milton's  first  wife,  Eve  falls 
into  trouble  through  resistance  of  her  husband's  authority. 


THE  MILTON  1C  PERIOD  195 

On  the  other  hand,  the  poet's  fallen  angels,  depicted  in  the 
first  two  books,  are  the  most  realistic,  the  most  interesting 
creations  of  the  kind  ever  conceived  by  any  man.  He  has 
produced  one  of  the  world's  most  marvellous  poems,  daring  in 
imagination  and  harmonious  in  diction.  Dante's  T)imne 

o 

Comedy  is  the  only  poem  at  all  worthy  of  being  compared  with 
Paradise  Lost  in  sublimity  of  thought,  and  each  has  placed 
its  author  among  the  loftiest  figures  in  literary  history. 

Paradise  Regained  (1671).  —  It  is  the  temptation  and  the 
triumph  of  Jesus  that  are  described  in  Paradise  Regained,  an 
epic  in  four  books.  There  is  a  lack  of  chivalry  in  Milton's 
allusions  to  women.  He  allows  Satan,  in  the  second  book, 
to  say  — 

For  Beauty  stands 

In  the  admiration  only  of  weak  minds 
Led  captive.  —  220-222. 

The  poet's  power  is  still  conspicuous,  even  if  the  imagery  and 
the  dramatic  energy  are  more  restrained.  The  masterly 
rhythm  of  the  music,  the  breadth  of  culture,  and  the  compre- 
hensive sweep  of  the  poet's  vision  would  alone  have  brought 
fame  to  any  writer. 

Samson  Agonistes.  —  Based  upon  the  sixteenth  chapter 
of  the  book  of  Judges,  Samson  Agonistes  (Samson  the  Antago- 
nist or  Champion,  1671)  recpunts_the_tragic  story  of  Samson, 
the  strongest  man  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  This  dramatic 
poem  is  written  in  the  rigorous  manner  of  Greek  tragedy. 
It  has,  like  the  Greek  play,  a  chorus  taking  part  in  the  dia- 
logue, but  the  poet  seems  to  forget  that  the  Greek  lyrics  in 
drama  were  intended  for  singing.  The  atmosphere  of.  the 
.poem  is  one  of  gloom,  mainly  unrelieved  by  pleasing  descrip- 
tion or  imagery.  For  years  Milton  had  not  gazed  upon  the 
faces  of  his  fellow-men,  yet  this  last  outburst  of  poetic  crea- 
tion is  proof  enough  that  the  poet's  vision  of  the  unseen  was 
as  clear  and  impassioned  as  in  the  days  of  vigorous  manhood. 


196  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Milton's  Rank  in  Literary  History.  —  Narrowness  of 
sympathy  is  Milton's  chief  limitation  as  a  man  and  as  a  poet. 
Even  in  his  account  of  the  heavenly  vision,  it  is  noticeable 
that  Satan's  revolt  evokes  no  sorrow  for  the  archangel's  fatal 
blunder,  but  rather  laughter  at  the  certainty  of  his  destruc- 
tion. On  the  other  hand,  Milton  arouses  the  highest  admira- 
tion for  the  strength  of  his  personality,  the  wealth  of  his  learn-  j 
ing,  the  majesty  of  his  style,  and  the  intensity  of  his  idealism.  ' 
On  eagle  wings  he  often  soars  above  the  petty  interests  of 
mankind,  reaching  heights  unattained  by  any  other  epic 
poet  of  modern  literary  history. 

SUMMARY 

1.  Much  of  the  literature  of  the  Miltonic  period  turns  its 
attention  to  earthly  realities,  becomes  dissatisfied,  and  seeks 
comfort  in  spiritual  realities. 

2.  Political  and  literary  history  of  the  period  shows  the 
Cavaliers  or  Royalists  on  one  side,  and  the  Puritans  or  Parlia- 
mentary party  on  the  other.     The  Authorized  Version  of  the 
Bible  (1611)  is  the  outcome  of  an  attempt  to  hush  religious 
strife. 

3.  The  three  unities  of  classical  drama  are  those  of  time, 
place,  and  action. 

4.  Choir-boys  and  schoolboys  were  employed  on  the  stage, 
and  even  the  men-actors  used  boys  to  play  the  women's  parts. 
Plays  were  adapted  to  suit  boy-actors. 

5.  Ben  Jonson,   who  also  wrote  lyrics  and  prose,  ranks 
next  to  Shakespeare  as  a  dramatist.     He  likes  to  portray 
types  or  common  moods  or  "  humours  "  of  men,  a  practice 
followed  by  Milton  in  L' Allegro  and  //  Penseroso.     Jonson, 
a  most  learned  poet,  wrote  many  masques. 

6.  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Ford,  and  Shirley  are  the  other 
leading  dramatists  of  this  period. 


THE  MILTON  1C  PERIOD  197 

7.  The  Puritans  closed  all  public  theatres  in  1642,  because 
they  regarded  many  of  the  plays  as  objectionable. 

8.  Burton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  Walton's  Compleat 
Angler,   Browne's   Religio   Medici,   Fuller's    Worthies,   and 
Taylor's  Holy  Living  and  Holy  Dying  are  among  the  chief 
prose  works  of  the  period.     Most  of  them  are  inclined  to  be 
serious. 

9.  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress  is  the  most  interesting  of 
religious  allegories  and  the  chief  prose  work  of  the  period. 

10.  In  the  Miltonic  period  Donne  is  the  strongest  of  lyric 
poets    prior   to    Milton.     Carew,    Herrick,    Suckling,    and 
Lovelace  are  notable  among  secular    poets,  while  Herbert, 
Crashaw,  and  Vaughan  are  well-known  religious  poets. 

11.  Milton's  ode  on  The  Nativity  is  the  most  musical  poem 
ever  written  by  a  young  man  of  twenty-one.     L' Allegro, 
II  Penseroso,  and  Comus  (a  masque)  are  the  most  enjoyable 
of  Milton's  poems.     Lycidas  is  a  fine  elegy,  marred  a  little  by 
threats  among  its  tears. 

12.  Milton's  prose  is  of    less  interest  than    his  sublime 
Paradise  Lost,  an  epic  embracing  twelve  books  of  imperish- 
able beauty.     The  sequel  to  it  is  Paradise  Regained,  whose 
theme  is  the  unsuccessful  temptation  of   Jesus  by  Satan. 
Samson  Agonistes  is  a  dramatic  poem  whose  blind  hero  is 
Samson,  the  strongest  of  all  men  named  in  the  Bible. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1 .  In  a  general  way  how  would  you  express  the  difference  between 
the  literature  of  the  Shakespearean  period  and  that  of  the  Miltonic  ? 

2.  Why  is  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  Bible  so  called  ?    After  ' 
reading  such  books  as  Genesis,  Exodus,  Ruth,  and  Esther,  give  your 
own  opinion  of  the  thought  and  style. 

3.  What  is  meant  by  unity  of  action  in  a  drama  ?     Did  Shake- 
speare sympathize  with  the  companies  of  boy-actors  or  with  the 
men-actors  ?    Give  a  reason  for  your  answer.     How  did  the  employ- 
ment of  boy-actors  affect  drama  ? 


198  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

4.  Name    one    or   more    of    Ben  Jonson's    plays.     Distinguish 
between  the  purpose  of  Jonson  and  that  of  Shakespeare.     What  is 
an  anti-masque  ? 

5.  Name  any  other  dramatist  of  the  Miltonic  period,  and  indicate 
the  nature  of  his  strength  or  his  weakness.     Do  you  recall  any  play 
written  in  Ireland  ?    Wha,t  was  its  nature  ? 

6.  Why  is  almost  all  the  prose  of  this  period  rather  serious? 
Illustrate  by  references  to  any  prose  writer  whom  you  remember. 

7.  Have  you  read  even  a  part  of  The  Pilgrim's  Progress  ?    If  not, 
please  do  so,  and  give  your  own  impressions  of  its  style  and 
thought. 

8.  When  is  a  composition  in  verse  or  prose  said  to  be  a  classic  ? 

9.  Tell  what  you  know  about  any  one  of  the  poets  mentioned  in 
this  chapter  before  or  after  Milton. 

10.  Reproduce  in  your  own  words  the  thought  of  such  poems  as 
L' Allegro,  II  Penseroso,  Comus,  and  Lycidas.      Which  of  Milton's 
poems  do  you  like  best?    Why?    Have  you  memorized  any  of  the 
noblest  passages  ? 

ADDITIONAL  AUTHORS  WITH  CHIEF  WORKS 

Dramatists.  —  Thomas  Heywood  (1572  ?-l  650),  A  Woman 
Killed  with  Kindness;  John  Marston  (1575  ?-1634),  The  Malcon- 
tent; John  Webster  (1580?-1625),  Duchess  of  Malfi;  Philip  Mas- 
singer  (1583-1640),  A  New  Way  to  Pay  Old  Debts,  a  comedy  still 
sometimes  played;  William  D'Avenant  (1605-1668),  The  Siege 
of  Rhodes,  in  which  a  woman  for  the  first  time  appeared  upon  the 
stage.  This  is  the  first  English  opera. 

Prose     Writers.  —  John     Selden      (1584-1654),     Table      Talk; 
Thomas  Hobbes  (1588-1679),  Leviathan,  dealing  with  politics  and 
religion;  Sir  Thomas  Urquhart  of  Cromarty  (1605?-1660),  Rabelai*, 
a  translation;    Edward   Hyde,   Earl   of  Clarendon   (1607-1674),] 
History  of  the  Rebellion;    Richard   Baxter   (1615-1691),   Saints'] 
Everlasting  Rest. 

Poets.  — Sir  Robert  Ayton  of   Kinaldie   (1570-1638),  Woman's] 
Inconstancy;   Phineas  Fletcher  (1582?-1650),  The  Purple  Island;, 
William    Drummond    of    Hawthornden    (1585-1649),    Wandering 
Muses;    Robert  Sempill  (1595?-1665?),  Habbie  Simson;   Edmund 
Waller  (1605-1687),  Go,  Lovely  Rose;   Samuel  Butler  (1612-1680), 
Hudibras,  a  satire  named  after  Sir  Hugh  de  Bras,  one  of  the  knights  I 
of  the  Round  Table;    Sir  John  Denham   (1615-1668),   Cooper's  \ 


THE  MILTON  1C  PERIOD  199 

Hill;     Abraham    Cowley    (1618-1667),    The    Mistress;     Andrew 
Marvell  (1621-1678),  In  the  Bermudas. 

SUPPLEMENTARY   READING 

All  the  leading  English  Classics  may  be  obtained  in  inexpensive 
editions  published  by  Macmillan  and  other  reputable  firms.  Besides 
Ward's  English  Dramatic  History  and  other  general  works  previously 
mentioned,  the  following  books  are  recommended  \ 

a.   For  Classes 

W.  Bell,  Milton's  Lycidas  and  Comus,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $.40. 

W.  C.  Bronson,  English  Poems  (The  Elizabethan  Age  and  the 
Puritan  Period) ;  specimens  from  Wyatt  to  Milton,  with  notes, 
Chicago  (Univ.  of  Chic.  Press),  $1.00. 

John  Milton,  Poetical  Works,  Astor  ed.,  N.  Y.  (Crowell),  $  .60. 

F.  E.  Schelling,  Seventeenth  Century  Lyrics,  Bost.  (Ginn),  $  .75. 

b.   For  Teachers  and  Others 

R.  Bridges,  Milton's  Prosody,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press),  $1.75. 

John  Brown,  John  Bunyan,  Bost.  (Hough ton),  Illus.,  $2.50. 

John  Brown,  The  English  Puritans,  N.  Y.  (Putnam's),  $  .40. 

H.  Corson,  Introduction  to  the  Works  of  Milton,  N.  Y.  (Macmil- 
lan), $1.25. 

J.  Crouch,  Puritan  and  Art,  N.  Y.  (Cassell),  $3.75. 

E.  Dowden,  Puritanism  and  Anglican  Studies  in  Literature,  N.  Y. 
(Holt),  $2.00. 

J.  A.  Froude,  John  Bunyan,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  Eng.  Men  of 
Letters  series,  $  .40. 

D.  Masson,  Milton's  Poetical  Works,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  Globe 
Poets,  $1.75. 

J.  H.  Masterman,  Age  of  Milton,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.00. 

B.  Nicholson  and  C.  H.  Herford,  Ben  Jonson,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's) , 
3  vols.,  $1.00  ea.  Best  plays. 

M.  Pattison,  Milton,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  E.  M.  L.  series,  $  .40. 

W.  P.  Trent,  John  Milton,  N.  Y.  (Lemcke),  $  .75. 

B.  Wendell,  The  Temper  of  the  Seventeenth  Century  in  English 
Literature,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $1.50. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  RESTORATION  PERIOD 
1660-1700 

THE  year  1660  marks  the  restoration  of  monarchy  in  the 
British  Isles  and  the  formal  restoration  of  drama.  The 
reign  of  Charles  II  (1660-1685),  of  James  II  (1685-1688), 
and  most  of  the  reign  of  William  III  anpl  Mary  (1689-1702) 
may  conveniently  be  called  the  Restoration  Period,  because 
all  its  chief  features  begin  to  appear  in  the  year  when  Charles 
returned  to  the  throne  of  his  forefathers. 

For  nearly  twenty  years  the  Puritans  had  been  masters  of 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  They  performed  a  noble  work  in 
awakening  men's  minds  to  the  thought  that  man  possesses  a 
spiritual  nature.  Mankind,  however,  is  so  constituted  that 
it  is  impossible  to  induce  all  people  to  think  and  act  alike. 
With  the  restoration  of  monarchy,  men  openly  followed  their 
natural  instincts.  Those  who  were  religious  remained  as 
pious  as  before ;  others  gave  themselves  up  to  worldly  pleas- 
ures. 

Influence  of  the  Stage.  —  Charles  II  knew  very  little  about 
the  people  of  his  native  land.  He  was  but  a  lad  of  fifteen 
when  his  mother  fled  with  him  to  France  for  safety.  He  was 
a  young  man  of  thirty  when  he  was  called  to  a  position  for 
which  he  was  untrained.  We  are  not  here  concerned  with  his 
faults  either  as  a  man  or  as  a  monarch,  but  with  his  influence 
upon  the  development  of  English  literature.  Educated  in 
France  at  a  time  when  French  drama  was  by  far  the  mos 
illustrious  in  Europe,  Charles  naturally  appreciated  French 

200 


THE  RESTORATION  PERIOD  201 

wit  or  comedy.  He  brought  his  courtiers  and  friends  with 
him  to  London,  a  city  which  soon  became  one  of  the  gayest  in 
Europe.  Literature  of  the  Restoration  period  was  written 
mainly  by  men  who  lived  in  London  and  cared  little  for  rural 
life.  Court  influence  became  dominant,  and  the  court  had 
little  sympathy  with  the  austerity  of  manners  which  had  pre- 
vailed for  years.  The  fashionable  life  of  London  was  largely 
reflected  in  the  excesses  of  the  Restoration  comedies.  If  the 
Restoration  drama  was  often  coarse,  it  evidently  suited  some 
of  the  people  who  flocked  to  the  London  theatres. 

Science  and  Prose.  —  A  recent  experiment  was  discussed 
at  court  no  less  readily  than  the  latest  play  or  the  choicest 
bit  of  gossip.  Robert  Boyle  (1627-1691),  a  younger  son  of 
the  Earl  of  Cork,  made  chemistry  popular,  while  astronomy 
and  physics  attained  the  highest  distinction  under  the  im- 
mortal Isaac  Newton  (1641-1724).  Two  years  after  Charles 
II  returned  to  England,  the  Royal  Society  was  founded  in 
London  to  stimulate  the  growth  of  scientific  knowledge,  and 
in  1680  the  king  granted  a  charter  to  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians  in  Edinburgh.  Thus,  in  the  north  as  well  as  in 
the  south,  scientific  pursuits  appear  to  have  received  the 
encouragement  of  royalty. 

Prose,  of  course,  is  the  natural  language  of  science,  and  it  is 
significant  that  both  science  and  prose  acquired  a  new  vigor 
about  the  same  time.  It  is  a  mistake,  however,  to  suppose 
that  the  new  interest  in  science  led  to  a  new  style  of  prose. 
The  truth  is  that  the  growth  of  science  and  of  prose  sprang 
from  the  same  cause  —  an  intense  desire  to  attain  clearness 
of  thought  and  expression.  It  was  a  time  of  curiosity  in 
regard  to  things  earthly  rather  than  things  heavenly.  The 
new  simplicity  of  style  sprang  from  a  new  earnestness  of  pur- 
pose. 

The  development  of  English  prose  is  the  most  brilliant 
achievement  of  Restoration  literature.  The  prose  of  Browne 


202  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

and  Milton,  admirable  as  it  is  in  some  respects,  never  could 
become  popular.  What  was  needed  was  a  style  more  clear, 
more  terse,  more  in  touch  with  the  language  of  everyday  use. 
The  need  was  met  by  a  change  in  prose,  which  was  really  a 
part  of  the  same  literary  movement  that  affected  poetry. 
France,  dominating  all  literary  Europe,  insisted  upon  the 
charm  that  springs  from  lucid,  orderly  composition.  A 
change  of  this  sort  became  necessary  not  merely  to  suit  the 
taste  or  fashion  of  the  time,  but  to  put  new  life-  into  the 
expanding  intellect  of  Britain. 

1.    PROSE 

John  Locke  (1632-1704).  —  A  philosophy  is  a  geperal 
opinion  of  the  world  in  which  we  dwell.  During  the  Restora- 
tion period  John  Locke  was  the  most  eminent  of  philosophers, 
and  he  employed  that  plain  style  of  prose  which  the  Royal 
Society  had  urged  upon  its  members.  When  Locke  left 
Christ  Church,  Oxford,  he  was  of  the  opinion  that  words 
often  took  the  place  of  facts.  His  writings  made  a  deep 
impression  upon  the  thought  and  literature  of  all  Europe. 

Locke  was  employed  to  draw  up  a  constitution  for  the 
government  of  Carolina,  but  his  best-known  works  are: 
(1)  the  famous  Essay  Concerning  Human  Understanding 
(1690),  a  book  in  which  he  tries  to  explain  how  the  mind 
acquires  knowledge  through  experience  or  the  use  of  the 
senses;  (2)  two  essays  on  Civil  Government  (1690),  used 
later  by  the  Americans  who  prepared  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  for  they  borrowed  from  him  such  phrases 
as  "  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  " ;  (3)  the 
essay  called  Thoughts  Concerning  Education  (1698),  a  work 
used  by  some  of  the  chief  thinkers  in  France ;  and  (4)  Letters 
on  Toleration,  issued  at  intervals,  pleading  for  toleration  in 
religious  matters. 


THE  RESTORATION  PERIOD 


203 


From  the  painting  by  Hayls,  National 
Portrait  Gallery 

FIG.  65.  — Samuel  Pepys. 


Samuel  Pepys  (1633-1703)  is 

not  generally  known  as  a  former 

president  of  the  Royal  Society, 

but  as  the  author  of  a  gossiping 

diary.    Educated  at  Cambridge, 

he  resided  in  London  with  his 

cousin    Sir    Edward    Montagu, 

later    Earl    of    Sandwich,    who 

was  one  of  the  three  Puritans 

that  helped  to  bring  Charles  II  to 

the  throne.     From  1660  to  1669 

Pepys   (pronounced   Peps)   day 

by  day  recorded  in  shorthand 

many  of  the  sayings  and  doings 

of  himself  and  others,  without 

a  thought  that  his  Diary  would  ever  be  published.     In  spite 

of  its  author's  vanity,  his  work  is  an  amusing  as  well  as 

valuable  record  of  social  life  in  seventeenth-century  London. 
Sir  George  Mackenzie  (1636-1690)  of  Rosehaugh  is  "  that 
noble  wit  of  Scotland/'  as  Dryden 
calls  him.  He  was  Lord  Advocate 
under  Charles  II  and  James  II, 
and  he  was  the  founder  of  the 
great  Advocates'  Library  in 
Edinburgh.  Besides  verses,  es- 
says, and  memoirs  he  wrote  a 
heroic  romance  entitled  Aretina 
(1661).  Many  passages  are  pol- 
ished as  well  as  dignified,  and  his 
work  has  value  in  being  one  of 
the  forerunners  of  the  historical 
romance  created  by  Sir  Walter 

From  an  Edinburgh  portrait       ~ 
FIG.  66.  —  Sir  George 
Mackenzie. 


204  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

2.  DRAMA 

Heroic  Verse.  —  Heroic  verse  is  verse  that  is  supposed  to  be 
most  suitable  for  heroic  or  lofty  themes.  Heroic  verse  is 
employed  in  epic  as  well  as  dramatic  poetry,  and  its  form 
varies  in  different  countries.  The  Restoration  writers  of 
heroic  plays  made  use  of  heroic  couplets  mingled  with  blank 
verse  or  prose.  A  heroic  couplet,  of  course,  consists  of  two 
successive  lines  of  ten  syllables,  each  line  riming  with  the 
other.  Here  is  a  heroic  couplet  from  Dryden's  Aureng-zebe: 

'Tis  not  for  nothing  that  we  life  pursue ; 

It  pays  our  hopes  with  something  still  that's  new. 

Operas  and  Heroic  Plays.  —  Every  tragedy  written  partly 
in  rime  was  regarded  as  a  heroic  play.  It  was  really  in  1656 
that  English  opera  and  the  English  heroic  play  came  into 
existence.  The  Siege  of  Rhodes,  the  work  of  Sir  William 
D'Avenant  (1605-1668),  appeared  in  1656.  It  was  termed 
opera,  partly  to  avoid  trouble  with  the  Puritans,  and  partly 
because  singing  directly  advances  the  action  of  the  play.  It 
is  a  story  of  love  with  a  background  of  war.  Indeed  the  whole 
action  of  Restoration  drama,  tragic  as  well  as  comic,  turns 
upon  various  phases  of  love. 

During  this  period  music  came  to  be  recognized  as  essential 
to  a  properly  conducted  playhouse.  Opera  is  drama  based 
upon  music,  whereas  the  heroic  play  employs  music  as  an 
incident  in  working  out  the  plot.  Operas  and  heroic  plays 
employ  rime,  and  both  are  concerned  with  love  and  friendship. 

The  Comedy  of  Manners.  —  Comedy  does  not  mingle  well 
with  heroic  tragedy,  although  tragi-comedy  endeavors  to  ha,ve 
the  lofty  style  of  tragedy  with  a  happy  ending.  Restora- 
tion comedy  is  chiefly  satire.  It  professes  to  portray  the 
weaknesses  of  society,  and  as  a  rule  it  is  written  in  prose. 
Neither  the  heroic  plays  nor  the  comedies  of  this  period 


THE  RESTORATION  PERIOD  205 

appear  to-day  on  the  stage,  mainly  because  they  appeal  to  a 
limited  class  of  people.  Public  taste  has  changed  completely. 

Thomas  Otway  (1651-1685)  was  inclined  to  be  too  impul- 
sive. After  leaving  Oxford  he  served  for  a  time  as  a  cavalry 
officer.  He  achieved  his  first  theatrical  success  as  author  of 
the  tragedy  of  Don  Carlos  (1676),  written  in  rime.  Two 
years  later  appeared  The  Orphan,  one  of  the  best  of  his 
tragedies.  In  spite  of  serious  defects  its  blank  verse  is  the 
medium  of  a  tenderness  which  can  scarcely  fail  to  impress  the 
reader.  Monimia,  the  unfortunate  heroine,  must  have  called 
forth  many  a  sob  in  the  old  London  theatre.  In  the  delinea- 
tion of  pathetic  scenes  Otway  is  a  master,  and  it  is  to  his 
power  in  this  respect  that  he  is  indebted  for  his  position  in 
English  literary  history.  In  1682  appeared  the  finest  of  all  his 
tragedies,  Venice  Preserved,  suggestive  at  times  of  Shake- 
speare's Othello.  The  greatest  scene  is  that  in  which  the 
heroine  Belvidera  saves  her  father  and  the  State. 

William  Congreve  (leTO^lTga),  an  Englishman  by  birth, 
was  educated  at  the  grammar  school  of  Kilkenny  in  Ireland 
and  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  Most  of  his  plays  are  come- 
dies, the  ablest  of  which  is  The  Way  tf  the  Worldc4^^. 
In  this  play  is  Millamant,  the  most  remarkable  of  Congreve's 
heroines.  The  dialogue  has  the  fine  French  qualities  of  wit, 
ease,  and  precision.  Most  of  the  men  in  Congreve's  plays 
are  rascals,  even  if  their  language  is  polished.  The  Mourning 
Bride,  a  tragedy  in  blank  verse,  was  produced  in  1697.  Two 
of  its  lines  have  been  frequently  quoted : 

Music  hath  charms  to  soothe  a  savage  breast, 

To  soften  rocks,  or  bend  a  knotted  oak.  —  Act  I,  Sc.  i. 

George  Farquhar  (1678-1707),  a  native  of  Londonderry, 
was  an  actor  in  Dublin  until  he  severely  wounded  a  fellow- 
player  in  a  duel  on  the  stage.  His  best  comedy  is  The  Beaux9 
Stratagem  (1707),  written  shortly  before  his  death.  The  plot 


206 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


is  clever,  and  the  play  is  of  historic  interest  as  the  forerunner 
of  sentimental  dramas  such  as  Goldsmith's  She  Stoops  to 
Conquer. 

JOHN  DRYDEN  (1631-1700) 

The  most  eminent  literary  man  of  this  period  was  John 
Dryden,  whose  birth  gave  a  place  on  the  map  to  Aldwinkle, 

a  village  in  Northamptonshire. 
John  was  the  son  of  Erasmus, 
who  was  the  third  son  of  Sir 
Erasmus  Driden.  In  his  nine- 
teenth year  the  lad  became  a 
student  at  Cambridge,  where  he 
was  known  to  Pepys,  the  diarist. 
Four  years  later  his  father's  death 
left  him  in  possession  of  a  small 
estate. 

Young  Dryden's  first  poem  of 
any  consequence  is  entitled  Heroic 
Stanzas  (1658)  in  honor  of  Crom- 
well, who  died  shortly  before. 
He  may  or  may  not  have  been 
inspired  by  a  sincere  appreciation 
Cromwell.  All  that  we  know 

no 


FIG.  67.  —  John  Dryden. 


From  the  painting  by  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller, 
National  Portrait  Gallery 


bitter  remarks  about  those  who 
fought  on  either  side  during  the 
Civil  War.  Already  he  begins  to  show  that  he  understands 
how  to  create  heroic  couplets,  even  if  he  has  not  yet  acquired 
self-confidence.  Like  Milton  in  his  youth,  Dryden  employs 
the  conceits  of  the  so-called  metaphysical  poets.  Donne, 
for  instance,  is  called  metaphysical  in  the  sense  that  many 
of  his  figures  of  speech  are  beyond  what  is  natural. 

In  1660  Dryden  produced  a  more  successful  poem,  Astrcea 


THE  RESTORATION  PERIOD  207 

Redux  (The  Returning  Star),  wherein  he  celebrates  the  return 
of  Charles  II  to  the  throne  of  his  forefathers.  Three  years 
later  the  poet  married  Lady  Elizabeth  Howard,  daughter 
of  the  Earl  of  Berkshire,  and  in  the  same  year  he  began  to 
write  plays  in  order  to  add  to  his  income. 

The  year  1667  saw  Milton's  Paradise  Lost  as  well  as  the 
death  of  Jeremy  Taylor,  the  birth  of  Swift,  and  the  publica- 
tion of  Dryden's  Annus  Mirabilis  (The  Wonderful  Year). 
This  poem  was  written  to  portray  the  wonders  of  the  year 
1666 ;  namely,  naval  victories  over  the  Hollanders  or  Dutch, 
and  the  Great  Fire  which  raged  for  five  days  and  reduced 
two-thirds  of  London  to  ashes.  In  1680  Dryden  became 
poet-laureate,  a  position  which  he  held  for  about  eight  years. 
The  first  of  his  translations  appeared  in  1680,  and  the  fol- 
lowing year  witnessed  the  earliest  of  his  bold,  forceful  satires 
in  verse. 

With  mental  power  unabated,  Dryden  continued  to  write 
translations  of  Virgil  and  other  ancient  classics  as  well  as 
adaptations  of  Chaucer.  For  many  years  at  Will's  Coffee 
House  in  London  he  had  ruled  supreme,  acknowledged  as 
the  most  brilliant  literary  man  of  his  time.  He  died  in  May, 
1700,  and  was  laid  to  rest  near  Chaucer  in  Westminster 
Abbey. 

Dryden's  Plays.  —  Few  people  really  believe  that  Restora- 
tion drama  is  a  faithful  picture  of  all  phases  of  seventeenth- 
century  society  in  England.  If  Dryden  had  refrained  from 
play  writing,  his  reputation  would  in  no  way  have  suffered. 
His  plays  are  seldom  read,  because  they  do  not  possess  those 
qualities  that  enable  literary  works  to  stand  the  test  of  time. 
Like  so  many  of  the  plays  of  this  period  they  are  not  strong  in 
delineating  the  nobler  side  of  human  nature  ;  indeed  they  are 
coarse.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  most  of 
j  them  are  full  of  action,  and  that  the  diction  is  almost  always 
i  brilliant. 


208  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Perhaps  the  best  of  Dryden's  plays  is  All  for  Love  (1678). 
Modelled  upon  Shakespeare's  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  this 
tragedy  has  a  well-constructed  plot,  and  it  contains  some 
notable  lines  of  real  pathos. 


FIG.  68.  —  Westminster  Abbey  —  Poet's  Corner. 

Dryden's  Prose.  —  Dryden's  prose,  chiefly  critical,  exhibits 
the  versatility  and  power  of  his  genius.  His  essays  consist 
mainly  of  prefaces  and  dedications  to  his  own  works.  The 
most  famous  of  the  essays  are  the  Dramatic  Poesy  (1665)  and 
the  Preface  to  the  Fables  (1700).  If  we  allow  for  his  personal 
prejudices,  we  cannot  but  admire  their  insight  and  good 
sense.  The  former  essay  is  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue  aboard 
a  vessel  on  the  river  Thames,  the  speakers  being  Lord 
Buckhurst,  Sir  Robert  Howard  (Dryden's  brother-in-law), 


THE*  RESTORATION  PERIOD  209 

Sir  Charles  Sedley,  and  the  poet  himself,  all  under  assumed 
names.  The  object  of  the  essay  is  to  defend  the  English 
stage  against  the  French  and  to  plead  for  the  use  of  rime  in 
tragedy.  This  is  how  it  begins  : 

It  was  that  memorable  day,  in  the  first  summer  of  the  late 
war,  when  our  navy  engaged  the  Dutch  ;  a  day  wherein  the  two 
most  mighty  and  best  appointed  fleets  which  any  age  had  ever 
seen,  disputed  the  command  of  the  greater  half  of  the  globe, 
the  commerce  of  nations,  and  the  riches  of  the  universe. 

Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  Arnold  are  the  only  other 
poets  whose  literary  criticism  is  so  penetrating.  As  a  writer 
of  prose,  Dryden  followed  no  man,  because  there  was  no  man 
superior  to  himself  in  this  form  of  composition.  He  was  a 
pioneer.  A  master  of  the  more  subtle  allurements  of  prose 
rhythm,  his  manner  is  dignified  without  being  stilted,  and 
free  without  being  slovenly.  He  is  never  wearisome,  because 
he  has  vigor  and  variety.  It  'was  he  who  helped  to  shape 
English  speech  so  that  it  became  an  instrument  ready  for 
science,  history,  fiction,  or  any  purpose  outside  of  poetry. 

The  Political  Satires  in  Verse.  —  In  order  to  understand 
the  political  satires,  we  need  to  remember  that  the  Cavaliers 
or  Loyalists  became  known  as  Tories  in  Dryden's  day,  and 
they  are  the  Conservatives  of  British  politics  at  the  present 
time.  The  Puritans  came  to  be  known  as  Whigs,  and  they 
are  the  present  Liberal  party  in  British  politics.  Tory  and 
Whig  are  nicknames,  the  former  being  an  Irish  word  and  the 
latter  Scottish.  Our  interest  in  Dryden's  political  verses  is 
purely  literary. 

Absalom  and  Achitophel  (1681)  is  the  most  effective  political 
satire  ever  written.  It  is  an  attack  upon  the  Whig  Earl  of 
Shaftesbury  (Achitophel),  then  in  the  Tower  of  London 
awaiting  trial  for  supporting  the  claims  of  the  Duke  of 
Monmouth  (Absalom)  to  succeed  Charles  II  (King  David). 


210  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Both  the  persons  and  the  places  in  this  caustic  allegory  bear 
Scriptural  names,  London  being  called  Jerusalem,  while  the 
English  are  termed  Jews,  and  England  is  Israel. 

This  allegory  reveals  the  new  interest  of  man  in  man.  Its 
portraits  reflect  the  new  interest  in  human  character,  which 
sprang  from  the  Civil  War.  Such  sketches  helped  to  pre- 
pare the  way  for  that  later  delight  in  the  analysis  of  charac- 
ter, a  delight  which  called  into  existence  the  periodical  essays 
of  journalism  and  the  novels  of  Fielding  and  others.  Some 
of  the  more  piquant  lines  of  the  satire  are : 

A  man  so  various  that  he  seemed  to  be, 

Not  one,  but  all  mankind's  epitome ; 

Stiff  in  opinions,  always  in  the  wrong, 

Was  everything  by  turns  and  nothing  long.  —  545. 

So  over  violent,  or  over  civil, 

That  every  man  with  him  was  God  or  Devil.  —  557. 

Great  wits  are  sure  to  madness  near  allied, 

And  thin  partitions  do  their  bounds  divide.  — 163. 

Shaftesbury,  found  not  guilty  of  treason,  was  released  from 
the  Tower  a  few  days  after  the  appearance  of  Absalom  and 
Achitophel.  The  Whigs  were  so  happy  that  they  began  to 
wear  a  medal  stamped  with  Shaftesbury's  likeness,  and  this 
suggested  the  title  to  Dryden's  second  political  satire.  The 
Medal  (1682)  possesses  less  sparkle,  less  fire,  less  playfulness, 
than  its  predecessor,  though  the  language  is  as  keen  and 
polished  as  ever. 

The  Literary  Satire.  —  In  1682  appeared  Mac  Flecknoe,  a 
scathing  satire  on  Thomas  Shadwell  (1640-1692),  a  play- 
wright and  versifier  who  apparently  circulated  a  baseless 
scandal  concerning  Dry  den.  The  reason  for  choosing  such  a 
title  is  obvious.  Richard  Flecknoe  was  a  man  well  known 
in  London,  whose  name  had  become  proverbial  for  his 


THE  RESTORATION  PERIOD  211 

wretched  verses.  Shadwell  is  represented  as  his  adopted  son, 
who  is  to  succeed  him  as  monarch  of  the  realm  of  Dullness  and 
Nonsense.  This  amusing  poem,  which  suggested  to  Pope  the 
Dunciad,  runs  thus : 

Shadwell  alone,  of  all  my  sons,  is  he 
Who  stands  confirmed  in  full  stupidity. 
The  rest  to  some  faint  meaning  make  pretence, 
But  Shadwell  never  deviates  into  sense.  —  15. 

Religious  Didactic  Poems.  —  A  didactic  poem,  of  course,  is 

one  that  is  intended  to  convey  instruction.     It  may  concern 

tself  with  any  topic  that  has  human  interest.     Religio  Laid 

Religion  or  Faith  of  a  Layman)  is  a  religious  didactic  poem, 

the  year  1682.  One  of  its  most  admired  passages  may  be 
quoted : 

Dim  as  the  borrowed  beams  of  moon  and  stars 
To  lonely,  weary,  wandering  travellers, 
Is  Reason  to  the  soul :  and  as  on  high, 
Those  rolling  fires  discover  but  the  sky, 
Not  light  us  here ;  so  Reason's  glimmering  ray 
Was  lent,  not  to  assure  our  doubtful  way, 
But  guide  us  upward  to  a  better  day.  —  1-7. 

Another  poem  of  a  similar  nature  is  The  Hind  and  the 
Anther  (1687),  an  allegory  in  which  "  the  milk-white  hind, 

unspotted  and  unchanged  "  is  the  Catholic  Church,  and  the 
Anther  is  the  Church  of  England.  Some  of  its  more  familiar 

lines  are  these : 

For  truth  has  such  a  face  and  such  a  mien, 

As  to  be  loved  needs  only  to  be  seen.  —  Pt.  I,  33—34. 

For  friendship,  of  itself  an  holy  tie, 

Is  made  more  sacred  by  adversity.  —  Pt.  Ill,  47-48. 

Two  magnets,  heaven  and  earth,  allure  to  bliss ; 

The  larger  loadstone  that,  the  nearer  this.  —  Pt.  Ill,  368-369. 


212  ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 

Lyric  Poems.  —  Besides  some  rare  songs  scattered  through 
his  plays,  Dryden  wrote  the  Song  for  St.  Cecilia's  Day  (1687), 
and  Alexander's  Feast  (1697),  both  odes  in  honor  of  St. 
Cecilia,  the  patron  saint  of  music.  Alexander's  Feast,  which 
was  set  to  music  by  Handel  in  1736,  is  probably  the  most 
popular  of  Dryden's  poems.  In  variety  of  measure  and 
beauty  of  imagery  it  ranks  as  one  of  the  finest  odes  in  the 
English  language.  Every  one  is  familiar  with  — 

None  but  the  brave  deserves  the  fair, 
and  — 

He  raised  a  mortal  to  the  skies ; 
She  drew  an  angel  down. 

Dryden  as  a  Man  of  Letters.  —  Dryden  was  by  far  the 
greatest  writer  of  the  Restoration  period,  and  it  was  his  influ- 
ence that  gave  its  color  to  the  period  which  followed.  His 
themes  are  chiefly  of  the  men  and  the  conditions  of  his  own 
time.  Had  he  been  merely  a  playwright,  he  might  have  been 
forgotten  long  ago.  It  is  in  non-dramatic  poetry  and  in 
prose  writing  that  his  genius  is  best  displayed.  He  it  was 
who  created  modern  prose.  He  it  was  who  gave  the  highest 
distinction  to  the  heroic  couplet,  to  the  metrical  satire,  and 
to  literary  criticism.  His  powerful  intellect,  his  superb  sense 
of  form,  his  versatility,  stamp  Dryden  as  one  of  the  foremost 
men  of  letters  in  English  literary  history. 

SUMMARY 

1.  Literature  of  the  Restoration  period  was  written  mainly 
in  London  by  men  who  had  little  interest  in  the  rural  districts. 

2.  The  court  influenced  science,  art,  and  literature. 

3.  Locke,  who  tried  to  show  how  we  acquire  knowledge, 
pointed  out  that  the  basis  of  government  is  the  will  of  the 
people.     Pepys's  Diary  throws  light  upon  the  social  life  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 


THE  RESTORATION  PERIOD  213 

4.  Mackenzie's  heroic  romance  helped  to  prepare  the  way 
for  Scott's  historical  romances. 

5.  In  the  Restoration  period  what  was  called  heroic  verse 
was  supposed  to  be  best  fitted  to  set  forth  heroic  or  dignified 
topics.     It  was  therefore  used  for  heroic  plays  or  tragedies. 
Heroic  plays  are  also  known  as  riming  plays,  because  they  are 
written  largely  in  heroic  couplets  or  pairs  of  ten-syllabled 
lines  that  rime  with  each  other.     These  couplets  were  also 
employed  in  satires  and  other  forms  of  non-dramatic  verse. 

6.  In  opera  the  actors  sing  their  parts  rather  than  speak 
them  as  in  an  ordinary  play.     English  opera  was  at  first  a 
modification  of  French  opera.     Love  is  the  chief  theme  of 
Restoration  opera  and  regular  drama. 

7.  Otway's  tragedies,  such  as  Venice  Preserved,  are  noted 
[or  pathos  or  tenderness.     Congreve's  tragedy,  The  Mourning 
Bride,    is   better   known   than   his    comedies.     Farquhar's 
Beaux9  Stratagem  is  a  sort  of  stepping-stone  from  the  comedy 
of  this  period  to  that  of  Goldsmith. 

8.  In  his  youth  Dryden  was  naturally  somewhat  influenced 
by  the  kind  of  poetry  that  was  most  fashionable  during  the 
Miltonic  period.     Because  of  its  fanciful  or  unnatural  figures 
of  speech,  it  is  sometimes  called  metaphysical  poetry,  though 
the  term  is  not  a  very  happy  one. 

9.  Dryden  composed  the  cleverest  political  satire  ever 
written  in  English  verse.     In  his  day  Cavaliers  or  Loyalists 
were  called  Tories,  whereas  Puritans  came  to  be  known  as 
Whigs. 

10.  Dryden  gained  fame  (a)  as  the  creator  of  modern  prose, 
(b)  as  a  literary  critic,  (c)  as  a  master  of  the  heroic  couplet, 
(d)  as  the  ablest  writer  of  satirical  verse,  and  (e)  as  a  trans- 
ator  of  Virgil  and  other  ancient  classics.     Alexander's  Feast 
is  his  most  popular  poem. 


214  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  How  may  we  account  for  the  remarkable  development  of 
science  and  of  prose  during  the  Restoration  period? 

2.  What  literary  benefit  did  England  derive  from  France  at  this 
time? 

3.  What    is    philosophy?    How    did    Locke's    writings  .affect 
America  and  France  ? 

4.  In  what  respect  does  Pepys's  Diary  resemble  an  autobiog- 
raphy ? 

5.  Indicate  the  chief  value  of  George  Mackenzie's  contribution 
to  English  literature. 

6.  Wherein  do  operas  and  heroic  plays  resemble  each  other? 

7.  Name  one  Restoration  play  and  its  heroine.     Do  you  remem- 
ber a  line  from  one  of  the  plays  ? 

8.  Tell  what  you  know  concerning  the  object  of  Dryden's  essay 
on  Dramatic  Poesy. 

9.  What  is  meant  by  saying  that  Absalom  and  Achitophel  is  "an 
attack  upon  the  Whig  Earl  of  Shaf tesbury "  ?     Quote  one  of  its 
heroic  couplets. 

10.  Explain  the  phrase  " didactic  poem."     Illustrate  by  refer- 
ence to  one  of  Dryden's  poems.     Repeat  one  of  the  most  memorable 
lines  in  Alexander's  Feast. 

ADDITIONAL   AUTHORS   WITH   CHIEF   WORKS 

Prose  Writers.  —  John  Evelyn  (1620-1706),  Diary;  Robert 
Boyle  of  Lismore  (1627-1691),  Occasional  Reflections;  Isaac  Barrow 
(1630-1677),  Sermons;  Gilbert  Burnet  (1643-1715),  History  of  My 
Own  Times  —  really  memoirs;  William  Dampier  (1652-1715), 
Voyage  Round  the  Worldj  —  a  buccaneer  for  a  time ;  then  as  com- 
mander of  a  privateer  he  put  Alexander  Selkirk  (hero  of  Robinson 
Crusoe)  ashore  on  the  island  of  Juan  Fernandez,  which  is  over  400 
miles  west  of  Chile,  South  America;  Andrew  Fletcher  of  Saltoun 
(1653-1716),  Regulation  of  Governments.  Fletcher's  most  famous 
saying  is,  "If  a  man  were  permitted  to  make  all  the  ballads,  he  need 
not  care  who  should  make  the  laws  of  a  nation." 

Dramatists.  — Sir  George  Etherege  (1634-1691),  The  Man  of 
Mode;  William  Wycherley  (1640-1715),  The  Plain  Dealer ;  Nathan- 
iel Lee  (1653?-1692),  The  Rival  Queens. 


THE  RESTORATION  PERIOD  215 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

Palamon  and  Arcite,  rival  lovers  of  Emilia,  appear  in  one  of 
Chaucer's  Canterbury  Tales.  Dryden's  Palamon  and  Arcite  may 
be  obtained  for  about  twenty-five  cents  from  Macmillan  (Pocket 
Classics),  Ginn,  Heath,  Longmans,  Hough  ton  Mifflin  (Riverside 
series),  American  Book  Co.,  Silver  Burdett,  etc. 

a.  For  Classes 

J.  C.  Collins,  Satires  of  Dryden,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $  .40. 
M.  W.  Croll,  Dryden  to  Burns:  Lyric  Poems,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  $.30. 
R.  Garnett,  Pepys's  Diary,  2  vote.,  N.  Y.  (Button).     Each  $.35. 
Everyman's  Library. 

F.  T.  Palgrave,  Golden  Treasury,  N.  Y.   (Macmillan),  Pocket 
Classics,  $.25.     Standard  School  Library,  $  .50,  by  same  firm.     In- 
cludes Dryden  and  others.     The  same  work  is  also  published  by  the 
Oxford  Press  (N.  Y.)  at  $  .35,  as  one  of  The  World's  Classics  series, 
and  by  Longmans,  Green  (N.  Y.)  at  $  .25. 

b.   For  Teachers  and  Others 

L.  N.  Chase,  The  English  Heroic  Play,  N.  Y.  (Lemcke),  $2.00. 

W.  D.  Christie,  Dryden' s  Poetical  Works,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
$1.75.  Globe  Poets.  Crowell  (N.  Y.)  has  the  Astor  edition  of 
Dryden  at  $.60,  and  the  Oxford  Press  (N.  Y.)  has  editions  at  $.50 
and  $1.75. 

A.  C.  Fraser,  Locke,  Philadelphia  (Lippincott),  $.50. 

R.  Garnett,  Age  of  Dryden,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.00. 

Sir  E.  Gosse,  Restoration  Plays,  N.  Y.  (Dutton),  $.35.  Every- 
man's. 

W.  P.  Ker,  Dryden's  Essays,  2  vote.,  N.  Y.  (Oxford  Press), 
$2.75. 

J.  R.  Lowell,  Among  My  Books,  2  vote.,  Bost.  (Houghton), 
$2.00.  Contains  essay  on  Dryden 

P.  Lubbock,  Pepys,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $1.00. 

G.  W.  E.  Russell,  Evelyn's  Diary,  2  vote.,  N.  Y.  (Dutton).     Each 
$.35. 

G.  Saintsbury,  Dryden,  N.  Y.  (Harper),  $.75. 
R.  L.  Stevenson,  Familiar  Studies  of  Men  and  Books,  N.  Y. 
(Scribner's),  $1.00.     Includes  Pepys. 
W.  Strunk,  Dryden's  All  For  Love,  Boston  (Heath),  $.60. 


CHAPTER    XI 

THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD 

1700-1760  , 

Scenes  Linked  with  Culloden.  —  We  are  standing  on  the 
battlefield  of  Culloden,  a  northeast  wind  whipping  the  sleet 
into  our  eyes.  Five  miles  distant  is  Inverness,  the  capital 
of  the  Scottish  Highlands.  Do  you  see  this  spring?  Here  it 
was  that  the  giant  chief  of  the  clan  Mackintosh  fell  dead  from 
his  wounds  as,  with  his  last  strength,  he  bore  to  the  spring 
a  little  wounded  drummer-boy  whom  he  had  heard  at  his  side 
moaning  for  water.  To  this  day  a  shadow  rests  upon  the 
memory  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  leader  of  the  govern- 
ment forces,  who  was  popularly  known  as  "  Billy  the  Butcher." 
To-day  round  the  oval  moorland  of  the  last  battle  fought  in 
the  British  Isles  are  thick  fir-woods,  dark  and  mournful  as 
they  guard  the  secrets  of  northern  valor  and  chivalry. 

Scope  of  the  Classical  Period.  —  The  battle  of  Culloden 
was  one  of  the  political  events  that  occurred  during  what  is 
usually  called  the  classical  period  of  English  literature,  and 
there  never  was  a  time  when  British  politics  and  literature 
were  more  closely  related.  Two  years  after  Dryden's 
death  Queen  Anne  began  to  reign,  and  she  was  followed  in 
1714  by  George  I,  a  German,  who  came  to  the  British  throne 
by  reason  of  his  Stuart  ancestry.  The  classical  period  may  be 
said  to  comprise  the  sixty  years  that  end  with  the  close  of  the 
reign  of  George  II  in  1760.  All  that  is  meant,  of  course,  is 
that  at  this  time  the  classical  tendency  is  uppermost  in  the 
efforts  of  its  leading  writers. 

216 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD  217 

The  classical  period,  as  this  chapter  is  entitled,  is  so  called 
because  most  of  the  writers  of  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century  based  their  work  upon  that  of  the  ancient  Greeks 
and  Romans.  In  other  words,  they  tried  to  reproduce  such 
qualities  of  the  ancients  as  simplicity 


of  form.  So  far  as  the  eighteenth-century  writers  are  natural 
and  reasonable,  they  are  truly  classical.  So  far  as  they 
cripple  themselves  by  needless  rules  or  by  imperfect  observa- 
tion, they  are  unclassical. 

Why  was  there  a  Classical  Period  ?  —  This  period  or  phase 
of  English  literature  seems  to  have  been  the  outcome  of 
(1)  The  Literature  of  France,  (2)  The  Growth  of  English 
Thought,  and  (3)  Changes  in  Politics. 

During  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV  (1653-1715)  the  literature  of 
France  surpassed  that  of  any  country  in  Europe.  Moliere 
(1622-1673)  wrote  comedies  that  live  to  this  day,  and  he  had 
brilliant  successors.  Naturally  the  writers  of  England 
desired  the  same  success  as  those  of  France.  The  French 
strove  for  polish,  conciseness,  good  sense,  as  opposed  to  wild 
flights  of  fancy.  If  their  method  seemed  to  restrain  imagina- 
tion in  poetfyvit  certainly  did  much  good  in  the  sphere  of 
prose. 

The  growth  of  English  thought,  especially  in  science  and 
philosophy,  needed  for  its  expression  the  very  qualities  that  dis- 
tinguish French  prose.  Pascal  in  France,  with  his  clear,  exact 
phrases,  was  the  forerunner  of  Newton,  the  English  scientist. 
Any  one  who  reads  the  prose  of  the  time  of  Shakespeare  and 
Milton,  and  compares  it  with  that  of  Dryden  or  Defoe  will 
see  that  Dryden  began  what  Defoe  and  others  continued  to 
improve.  If  France  showed  England  how  to  write  letters 
and  essays  and  other  forms  of  prose,  England  repaid  the  debt 
by  adding  to  the  wealth  of  French  thought. 

During  this  period  the  relation  between  politics  and  litera- 
ture was  closer  than  ever  before.  Parliament  had  become 


218  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

more  powerful  than  the  crown.  In  1657  there  was  only  one 
coffee-house  in  London,  whereas  in  1708  there  were  three 
thousand  coffee-houses,  many  of  which  had  their  little  com- 
panies of  merchants,  politicians,  or  men  of  letters.  The  coffee- 
house of  Wills  was  really  a  literary  club  where  Pope  as  a 
boy  had  heard  Dryden  discussing  topics  of  the  day.  Addison 
met  his  admirers  at  the  coffee-house  of  Buttons.  It  was  at 
such  places  that  the  leading  statesmen  became  acquainted 
with  literary  men,  and  began  to  use  their  talents  for  one  or 
other  of  the  political  parties.  Thus  the  town  clubs  came  to 
wield  a  greater  influence  than  the  court.  It  was  the  polit- 
ical changes  of  this  period  that  brought  journalism  to  the 
front,  making  it  a  power  in  shaping  the  destiny  of  literature 
as  well  as  society.  Satire  in  verse  or  prose,  amusing  friends 
or  ridiculing  rivals,  was  much  more  welcome  than  love- 
poetry  or  any  form  of  verse  that  did  not  adjust  itself  to  such 
social  conditions. 

Growth  of  Journalism. — During  this  period  the  first  daily 
newspaper  of  London  appeared  on  March  12,  1702  as  The 
Daily  Courant,  but  it  was  Defoe's  Review  (1704-1713)  that 
began  to  make  journalism  national  in  its  influence.  The 
earliest  newspaper,  more  or  less  in  close  touch  with  the  govern- 
ment, was  The  Examiner,  which  was  written  by  Swift  from 
November,  1710  to  June,  1711.  As  a  rival  news  organ  Addison 
started  The  Whig  Examiner,  but  only  three  numbers  were 
issued.  Its  successor  was  The  Medley,  to  which  Steele  at 
times  contributed.  In  1745  Fielding  was  writing  for  a  Whig 
paper  entitled  The  True  Patriot,  and  his  sarcastic  Jacobite 
Journal  (1747-1748)  was  intended  to  mock  at  those  who  sym- 
pathized with  the  army  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Culloden. 

Thus  almost  all  prominent  literary  men  were  writing  for 
the  Whigs,  most  of  whom  resided  in  the  towns,  or  for  the 
Tories,  whose  strength  lay  in  the  country.  The  bulk  of  the 
contributors,  however,  were  hack  writers,  that  is,  men  who 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD 


219 


depended  upon  publishers  for  their  daily  bread.  Many  of 
them  earned  very  little  money,  and  as  a  whole  they  came  to  be 
known  as  Grub  Street,  from  the  London  street  which  they 
frequented. 

1.    PROSE   WRITERS 
DANIEL  DEFOE  (1659-1731) 

One  of  the  most  versatile  writers  of  this  period  was  Daniel 
Defoe,  whose  birth  occurred  in  London  in  1659.  He  at- 
tended a  school  controlled  by  the 
Nonconformists  or  Dissenters, 
who  were  and  are  English  Prot- 
estants that  dissent  from  some 
of  the  opinions  of  the  Church  of 
England.  At  school  he  learned 
how  to  write  the  mother  tongue, 
and  then  he  engaged  in  trade 
with  little  success. 

It  was  in  1702  that  Defoe  pub- 
lished an  ironical  pamphlet  called 
Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters. 
It  pretended  to  advise  the  gov- 
ernment to  get  rid  of  Dissenters 
by  hanging  or  banishing  them, 
but  in  reality  it  was  an  attack 
upon  the  Tories.  Neither  the 
Whigs  nor  the  Tories  liked  De- 
foe's joke,  and  so  he  was  fined  as  well  as  imprisoned.  When 
a  reward  was  offered  for  Defoe's  arrest,  he  was  described  as 
a  middle-sized  thin  man,  with  dark  brown  hair,  hooked  nose, 
gray  eyes,  and  a  large  mole  near  his  mouth.  In  1706  he  was 
acting  as  a  government  spy  or  secret-service  man  in  Scot- 
land. 


FIG.  69.  —  Daniel  Defoe. 


220  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Defoe  was  the  most  brilliant  journalist  of  the  early  eigh- 
teenth century.  He  knew  that  nothing  so  interests  the 
average  reader  as  a  plain  story  of  events  that  are  or  seem  to 
be  real,  and  by  his  attention  to  detail  he  made  fiction  look 
like  fact.  His  writings  again  brought  trouble  upon  him,  for 
he  was  once  more  fined  and  imprisoned. 

Robinson  Crusoe.  —  Defoe  was  nearly  sixty  years  of  age 
when  he  wrote  Robinson  Crusoe  (1719),  one  of  the  best 
stories  ever  written.  It  is  based  upon  Captain  Rogers's 
narrative  of  the  adventures  of  Alexander  Selkirk,  the  Scottish 
sailor  who  was  marooned  (1704)  on  Juan  Fernandez,  an 
island  425  miles  west  of  Chile,  South  America.  Defoe's 
story  has  been  a  source  of  delight  to  generations  of  readers. 
Stevenson's  Treasure  Island  is  its  only  rival  in  our  language. 

The  Plot  of  Robinson  Crusoe.  — Robinson  Crusoe  runs 
away  from  home  and  joins  a  ship.  On  one  of  his  voyages 
he  is  seized  by  pirates,  but  after  a  time  he  escapes.  On  an- 
other voyage  his  ship  is  wrecked,  and  he  alone  is  cast  ashore 
on  a  desert  island.  He  builds  a  house,  and  supplies  himself 
with  food  and  clothes.  He  catches  and  tames  wild  goats. 

One  day  he  is  startled  to  see  the  track  of  a  naked  foot  on 
the  beach.  Cannibals  visit  the  island  in  canoes,  bringing 
prisoners  for  a  feast  of  human  flesh.  Crusoe  is  able  to  set 
one  of  the  captives  free,  and  Friday,  as  he  calls  the  young 
savage,  becomes  his  servant.  Finally  an  English  ship  carries 
him  back  to  his  native  land.  Thus  we  see  how  Crusoe,  by 
self-reliance,  common  sense,  and  industry,  overcomes  every 
difficulty. 

The  book  is  noted  for  (1)  itsjifelike  details  that  make  the 
story  look  real,  (2)  the  ease  of  its  diction,  (3)  the  variety  of 
thrilling  incident  calling  for  quick  judgment,  (4)  its  allegorical 
picture  of  the  struggle  that  mankind  must  have  experienced 
in  rising  to  the  comforts  of  civilization. 

Other  Chief  Works.  —  Defoe  was  one  of  the  most  prolific 


THE  CLASSICAL   PERIOD  221 

of  writers.  Before  his  death  in  1731  about  250  separate 
works,  not  counting  small  sheets,  are  known  to  have  come 
from  his  pen.  His  Journal  of  the  Plague  Year  (1722)  is 
written  with  such  detail  that  it  looks  like  authentic  history. 
It  professes  to  be  an  account  of  the  Great  Plague  of  London, 
as  witnessed  by  the  narrator  in  1665.  The  hero  once  saw 
people  gazing  upon  "  a  ghost  walking  on  a  grave  stone." 

Among  Defoe's  other  writings  Captain  Singleton  (1720), 
Moll  Flanders  (1722),  and  Jonathan  Wild  (1725)  point  the 
way  to  the  real  novel  in  which  character  is  portrayed.  They 
are  picaresque  stories,  picaresque  being  an  adjective  derived 
from  the  Spanish  picaro,  a  rogue.  Each  is  a  novel  in  which 
a  rogue  is  the  leading  character. 

Under  other  circumstances  Defoe  might  have  been  a  rich 
man,  but  his  courage  was  always  superior  to  his  judgment. 
He  had  never  learned  that  there  are  times  when  silence  is 
golden. 

JONATHAN  SWIFT  (1667-1745) 

Dublin,  the  capital  of  Ireland,  became  Jonathan  Swift's 
birthplace  in  1667.  After  his  education  at  Kilkenny  Gram- 
mar School  and  at  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  he  went  to  Eng- 
land, taking  up  his  residence  with  Sir  William  Temple,  whose 
wife  was  a  relative  of  Swift's  mother.  There  he  acted*  as 
tutor  of  Esther  Johnson,  a  child  of  six  who  had  practically 
been  adopted  by  the  Temples. 

In  his  twenty-fourth  year  Swift  obtained  a  degree  at 
Oxford.  In  1695  he  was  a  clergyman  at  Kilroot  near  Belfast 
in  Ireland.  Next  year  he  was  back  at  Moor  Park  in  Surrey, 
the  home  of  the  Temples,  and  there  he  seems  to  have  ac- 
quired an  affection  for  Esther  Johnson.  She  kept  his  letters, 
which  were  afterward  published  as  the  Journal  to  Stella. 
He  addressed  her  as  Stella  (Star),  and  for  years  they  were 
friends.  If  Swift  did  not  marry  her,  it  was  because  he  al- 


222 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


From  the  painting  ascribed  to  Bindon, 
National  Gallery  of  Ireland 


ways  feared  that  he  would  become  insane,  and  as  a  mattei 

of  fact  he  lost  his  reason  about  four  years  before  his  death. 

In  1710  he  became  an  intimate 
friend  of  the  leader  of  the  Tory 
party,  but  Queen  Anne  opposed 
the  attempt  to  make  Swift  the 
Bishop  of  Hereford.  He  is  com- 
monly known  as  Dean  Swift,  be- 
cause in  1713  he  became  Dean 
of  St.  Patrick's,  Dublin.  For 
years  pamphlets,  satires,  and 
poems  came  from  his  pen  in 
astonishing  numbers.  He  voiced 
the  grievances  of  Ireland  in  his 
Drapier's  Letters  (1724),  a  work 
which  professes  to  be  written  by 
M-  B->  Drapier  (draper  or  dry- 
goods  merchant). 
One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  -the  satires  is  A  Modest 

Proposal   (1729).     The  proposal  is  that  children  of  poor 

people  in  Ireland  should  be  sent 

with  the  sheep  and  oxen  to  the 

butcher.     Of   course,   Swift   did 

not  really  mean  what  he  wrote. 

It  is  an  attack  upon  the  govern- 

ment leaders  of  George  II,  be- 

cause Dean  Swift  believed  that 

their  way  of   governing  Ireland 

would  bring  starvation  to  many 

of  the  Irish  people.     When  Swift 

died  in  his  seventy-eighth  year,  it  was  found  that  he  had 

left  his  money  to  a  hospital  for  lunatics.     He  was  buried 

in  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral,  in  the  same  grave  with  Stella, 

who  had  died  seventeen  years  before.      After  his  death,  on 


FIG.  70.  -Jonathan  Swift. 


ft! 


FIG.  71.  —  St.  Patrick's  Cathe- 
dral. 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD 


223 


an  envelope  containing  a  tress  of  hair,  was  seen  in  Swift's 
handwriting,  "  Only  a  woman's  hair  !  " 

The  Battle  of  the  Books.  —  A  discussion  that  arose  in 
France  passed  to  England,  and  led  to  Swift's  Battle  of  the 
Books  (1697).  With  mock  dignity  it  describes  a  battle  in 
the  King's  Library.  The  ancient  classical  and  the  modern 
books  come  down  from  their  shelves,  and  fight  until  the 
Ancients  are  victorious. 

The  Tale  of  a  Tub.  —  About  the  year  1698  Swift  wrote 
a  Religious  allegory,  The  Tale  of  a  Tub,  which  is  supposed 
to  be  like  atub  that  sailors  fling  out  in  order  to  divert  a  whale 
from  ramming  or  capsizing  their  ship.  The  author  desires 
to  save  or  to  warn  the  ship  known  as  the  State.  Peter  (the 
Catholic  Church)  and  Martin  (Lutheran  Church  and  Church 
of  England)  and  Jack  (churches  that  follow  John  Calvin) 
are  three  brothers,  who  quarrel  about  the  interpretation  of 
their  father's  will  (the  Bible).  More  than  half  of  the  book 
contains  a  satire  on  the  life  and  authorship  of  Swift's  time. 
Some  people  thought  that  thrauthor  held  all  forms  of  religion 
up  to  ridicule,  but  it  is  scarcely  likely  that  this  was  his  inten- 
tion. He  often  joked  with  a  solemn  face.  '  The  reason 
why  so  few  marriages  are 
happy,"  he  once  re- 
marked, "  is  because 
young  ladies  spend  their 
time  in  making  nets,  not 
in  making  cages." 

Gulliver's    Travels.  - 
The  one  book  that  makes 
Swift's  name  familiar  to 
this     day     is     Gulliver's 
Travels   (1726),  Gulliver 
being  supposed  to  be  at  first  a  ship-surgeon,  who  tells  of  his 
extraordinary  adventures  in  the  course  of  four  voyages.     In 


From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch 
FIG.  72.  —  Gulliver  and  the  Lilliputians. 


224  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  first  Gulliver  comes  f.o-±hp.  nrmntry  of  Lillipnt, 
inhabitants,  about  six  inches  high,  fasten  him  to  the  ground. 
In  the  second  he  visits  Brobdingnag,  where  the  people  are 
sixty  feet  in  height.  The  third  voyage  takes  Lemuel  Gulliver 
to  Laptita,  an  island  inhabited  by  philosophers  and  others ; 
while  the  last  voyage  leads  him  tcTtEeland  of  the  Yahoos, 
a  degraded  race  of  human  beings. 

The  whole  reading  world  was  dazzled  and  delighted  by 
this  work  of  fiction,  the  first  to  appear  as  a  newspaper  serial. 
No  allegory,  except  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress,  has  so 
charmed  the  youth  of  each  generation  since  it  was  pub- 
lished. It  is  really,  of  course,  a  political  and  social 
satire,  the  most  brilliant  ever  written.  One  familiar  sen- 
tence runs  thus : 

And  he  gave  it  for  his  opinion,  that  whoever  could  make  two 
ears  of  corn  or  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  upon  a  spot  of  ground 
where  only  one  grew  before,  would  deserve  better  of  mankind  and 
do  more  essential  service  to  his  country  than  the  whole  race  of 
politicians  put  together. 

Swift's  Place  in  Literary  History.  —  A  kind  heart  throbbed 
within  the  bosom  of  the  man  whom  some  people  considered 
proud  and  cold.  Idolized  in  his  later  years  by  the  Irish, 
who  liked  his  honesty  as  well  as  his  wit  and  humor,  Swift 
had  numerous  admirers  in  England.  Addison  declared  that 
he  was  "  the  most  agreeable  companion,  the  truest  friend, 
and  the  greatest  genius  of  his  age."  Even  his  political 
opponents  perceived  that  society  had  derived  much  benefit 
from  those  fearless  onslaughts  that  have  no  parallel  until  we 
reach  Carlyle  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Less  simple  in 
style  than  Defoe,  SwiftJs  more  original.  Indeed  it  is  prob- 
able that  he  had  a  stronger  intellect  and  a  more  forceful 
style  in  prose  than  any  writer  of  this  period. 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD 


225 


JOSEPH  ADDISON  (1672-1719) 

Quotations  from  the  Spectator.  —  These  are  quotations 
from  The  Spectator,  a  journal  whose  articles  were  written 
mostly  by  Addison  and  Steele: 

"  The  hours  of  a  wise  man  are 
lengthened  by  his  ideas,  as  those 
of  a  fool  are  by  his  passions." 

"  I  would  have  every  zealous 
man  examine  his  heart  thor- 
oughly, and  I  believe  he  will 
often  find  that  what  he  calls 
zeal  for  his  religion  is  either 
pride,  interest,  or  ill-nature." 

"  Though  a  man  has  all  other 
perfections,  and  wants  discre- 
tion, he  will  be  of  no  great  con- 
sequence in  the  world.  Without 
it  learning  is  pedantry,  and 
wit  impertinence;  virtue  itself 
looks  like  weakness." 

Addison's     Poetry.  --  Joseph      Flo  73.  _  Joseph  Addison. 
Addison's  native  parish  was  Mil- 

ston  in  Wiltshire.  As  an  undergraduate  at  Oxford  he 
attracted  notice  by  the  ease  with  which  he  recited  Latin 
verse.  In  his  twenty-second  year  (1694)  he  addressed  some 
verses  to  Dryden,  whose  acquaintanceship  was  a  source  of 
pleasure  to  young  Addison. 

The  Whigs  wished  to  add  to  their  power  by  advertising 
Marlborough's  victory  at  Blenheim  (1704)  over  the  French 
and  Bavarians,  and  they  believed  that  poetry  would  lend 
dignity  to  the  party  as  well  as  to  the  battle.  Details  of  the 
political  situation  may  be  found  in  Thackeray's  Henry 
Esmond.  Addison  was  engaged  to  write  The  Campaign, 
a  poem  which  helped  the  Whig  party  and  helped  the  poet  to 
Q 


226  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

various  government  positions.  Although  he  wrote  hymns 
and  other  verses,  it  is  not  as  a  poet  that  Addison  is  remem- 
bered to-day. 

Addison's  Prose.  —  Addison  was  in  Ireland  when  Richard 
Steele  issued  the  first  number  of  The  Taller  (1709-1711). 
Both  men  contributed  to  this  periodical  and  to  its  successor 
The  Spectator  (1711-1714),  which  like  The  Taller  was  started 
by  Steele.  Their  literary  reputation  is  linked  mainly  with 
their  work  for  these  publications,  work  which  still  attracts 
by  its  genial  humor,  its  graceful  style,  and  its  skill  in  character 
drawing.  The  Vision  of  Mirza  and  the  sketches  of  Roger 
de  Coverley  are  among  the  most  memorable  prose  writings 
in  our  language. 

Addison's  Dramas.  —  To  the  men  of  his  own  day  Addi- 
son's  literary  fame  rested  upon  a  Roman  tragedy  which  was 
performed  at  Drury  Lane,  London,  in  1713.  A  crowded 
house  witnessed  Calo,  and  for  more  than  a  month  the  play 
was  performed  night  after  night.  Even  the  Tories  admitted 
that  it  was  a  work  of  great  ability,  although  both  parties 
fancied  that  it  was  a  political  play  in  disguise.  Pope  told 
its  author  that  it  was  better  fitted  to  be  read  than  played. 
Two  of  its  best-known  lines  are : 

'Tis  not  in  mortals  to  command  success, 

But  well  do  more,  Sempronius,  we'll  deserve  it. 

—  Act  I,  Sc.  ii,  44-45. 

In  his  forty-fourth  year  Addison  wrote  The  Drummer,  an 
unsuccessful  comedy,  and  the  same  year  he  married  the 
Dowager-Countess  of  Warwick.  In  his  forty-eighth  year 
the  genial  essayist  died.  His  tomb  is  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

The  Spectator's  Conception  of  a  Gentleman.  —  The 
Spectator  caused  (1)  a  change  for  the  better  in  society, 
(2)  greater  refinement  in  literature,  and  (3)  a  new  apprecia- 
tion of  the  choicest  English  literature  of  bygone  days. 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD 


227 


"  The  great  and  only  end  of  these  my  speculations,"  says 
Addison  in  The  Spectator,  "is  to  banish  vice  and  ignorance  out 
of  Great  Britain."  Addison  and  Steele  did  not  attempt  to 
improve  manners  and  morals  by  nagging  or  scolding.  They 
laughed  at  vice  until  it  began  to  feel 
ashamed  of  itself.  They  led  people 
to  see  the  charm  of  virtue  and  good 
breeding.  This  they  did  by  portray- 
ing fine  types  of  Englishmen  such  as 
the  country  gentleman,  Sir  Roger  de 
Coverley,  and  others  like  Captain 
Sentry,  Will  Wimble,  and  the  Temp- 
lar. Such  types  led  directly  to  the 
novel  of  character,  as  developed  by 
Richardson. 

Addison,  the  gentle  "  spectator  " 
of  London  life,  shows  his  readers 
that  it  is  possible  to  be  decent  with- 
out being  dull,  to  be  pious  without 
being  gloomy  or  intolerant,  to  be  chivalrous  without  silly 
enthusiasm.  He  continues  to  win  all  hearts  by  his  kindly 
humor,  his  restraint,  his  good  manners.  His  conception  of 
a  gentleman  has  stood' the  test  of  time. 

The  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers.  —  It  is  not  for  his 
paper  on  Chevy  Chase,  "  the  favorite  ballad  of  the  common 
people  of  England,"  that  Addison  is  remembered,  but  for 
his  Roger  de  Coverley  papers  in  The  Spectator.  There,  on 
the  tray  beside  the  dainty  porcelain  cups,  from  which  people 
of  fashion  in  those  days  sipped  their  tea  or  chocolate,  lay 
the  welcome  little  sheet  of  sparkling  wit  or  elegant  criticism, 
adding  zest  to  the  morning  meal  and  suggesting  topics  for 
evening  gossip. 

The  first  sketch  of  Sir  Roger  we  owe  to  the  pen  of  Steele, 
but  it  was  Addison  who  portrayed  him  in  sketch  after  sketch, 


From  a  pen-and-tnt  sketch 
FIG.  74.  —  The  Spectator. 


228 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Who  has  not  enjoyed  the  old  gentleman,  with  his  harmless 
little  oddities  of  manner,  simple  as  a  child  and  gentle  as  a 
woman,  kind  to  animals  and  to  all  people  in  trouble,  full 
of  good  sense,  respected  and  beloved  by  every  one?  We 

may  laugh  at  his  ways, 
and  yet  we  prize  Sir 
Roger  as  one  of  the  most 
delightful  friends  that 
we  meet  in  books  worth 
reading. 

Addison's  Place  in 
Literary  History.  —  The 
Sir  Roger  de  Coverley 
papers  helped  to  uplift 
the  ideals  of  the  world, 
for  Addison  and  Steele 
were  imitated  all  over 
Europe.  During  the 
eighteenth  century  Ger- 
many alone  produced 
more  than  500  journals 
like  The  Spectator,  some  of  them  printing  literal  transla- 
tions of  Addison  and  Steele.  There,  as  in  England,  the 
periodical  essay  led  on  to  the  novel  of  manners  or  novel 
of  character.  Addison  ranks  as  one  of  the  ablest  essayists 
in  English  literary  history.  His  humor  is  quiet  and  good- 
natured,  always  employed  to  leave  the  world  better  than  he 
found  it. 

SIR  RICHARD  STEELE  (1672-1729) 

Richard  Steele' s  birth-yearwas  the  same  as  that  of  Addison, 
his  father's  family  being  English  and  his  mother's  Irish. 
From  Dublin  he  went  to  Charterhouse  School,  London, 
where  his  long  friendship  with  Addison  began.  Both  lads 


FIG.  75.  — Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  coining 
from  Church. 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD 


229 


were  at  Oxford  together,  but  Steele,  less  prudent  than  his 
friend,  tired  of  study  and  joined  Ormonde's  Guards  in 
1694. 

His  Dramas.  —  The  plot  of  Steele's  first  comedy,  The 
Funeral  (1702),  is  most  improbable,  yet  its  fun  made  it  a  suc- 
cess. The  Tender  Husband 
(1703),  a  fair  specimen  of 
sentimental  drama,  was 
also  successful,  but  The 
Lying  Lover  (1704)  failed. 
Although  Steele  had  a 
good  income,  he  had  no 
business  sense,  and  his 
debts  were  a  source  of 
anxiety  to  himself  and 
his  friends.  In  1722  ap- 
peared The  Conscious 
Lovers,  dedicated  to  the 
"  gracious  and  amiable 
sovereign/'  George  I. 
One  of  the  characters  in 
Fielding's  Joseph  An- 
drews says  that  "  it  contains  some  things  almost  solemn 
enough  for  a  sermon." 

His  Essays.  —  It  was  Steele  who  started  The  Taller  (1709), 
published  three  times  a  week.  Of  its  271  papers  Steele 
wrote  188,  Addison  42,  and  together  they  wrote  36.  If 
Addison's  essays  in  The  Taller  and  The  Spectator  are  more 
polished,  Steele's  are  more  vigorous.  If  Addison  gave 
immortality  to  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley,  Steele  created 
him. 

In  1715  George  I  knighted  Steele,  and  the  following  year 
he  was  receiving  an  income  of  £1000  a  year  from  the  forfeited 
estates  of  Scottish  gentlemen  who  had  been  involved  in  the 


FIG.  76.  —  Sir  Richard  Steeled 


230 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


northern  rebellion  of  1715.  In  his  forty-third  year  he 
died  at  Carmarthen,  Wales,  where  he  had  gone  to  escape  the 
annovance  of  his  creditors. 


SAMUEL  JOHNSON  (1709-1784) 

Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson.  —  When  James  Boswell  (1740- 
1795)  was  introduced  to  Samuel  Johnson  in  1763,  the  young 

Scotsman  became  a  great 
admirer  of  the  burly  Eng- 
lishman. Among  Bos- 
weirs  works  none  has 
attracted  so  much  atten- 
tion as  his  Life  of  Johnson 
(1730),  the  finest  biog- 
raphy ever  written  in 
our  language.  Boswell's 
style  is  so  natural  and  so 
intimate  that  he  has 
given  us  a  clearer  con- 
ception of  Johnson  than 
some  of  us  have  of  our 
next-door  neighbors. 

The  year  1709  saw 
Johnson's  birth  at  Lich- 
field.  "  Cultivate  your 
mind,  if  you  happen  to 
have  one,"  is  the  advice 
that  he  offers  in  one  of 


FIG.  77.  —  Samuel  Johnson. 


his  letters.  In  his  nineteenth  year  he  entered  Oxford,  but 
he  did  not  possess  money  enough  to  stay  until  he  received 
a  degree.  For  a  time  he  was  a  teacher,  and  then  he  was  in 
the  employment  of  a  Birmingham  book-seller.  A  private 
school  which  he  had  started  was  unsuccessful.  In  1737  he 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD  231 

went  to  London,   where  he  had   a  hard  struggle   for  ex- 
istence. 

Beginning  of  Johnson's  Literary  Career.  —  In  his  twenty- 
ninth  year  Johnson  wrote  London  in  heroic  couplets,  wherein 
he  deplores  the  neglect  of  literature  by  England's  metropolis. 
In  The  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes  (1749)  he  tries  to  show 
from  the  career  of  men  like  Wolsey  that  earthly  ambition  is 
an  idle  dream.  Both  poems,  based  upon  the  satires  of  Juvenal, 
indicate  that  their  author  was  not  at  all  happy.  The  same 
dissatisfaction  is  brought  out  in  his  tale  of  Rasselas  (1759). 
Johnson  relates  how  Rasselas,  Prince  of  Abyssinia,  after 
travelling  over  the  world,  returns  to  his  native  valley, 
believing  in  the  vanity  of  earthly  pleasures.  Nevertheless 
the  manly  character  of  the  author  is  well  brought  out  when, 
in  Rasselas,  he  remarks  that  "  Nothing  will  ever  be  attempted 
if  all  possible  objections  must  be  first  overcome." 

Johnson  began  to  issue  The  Rambler  (1750-1752)  twice  a 
week,  and  about  six  years  later  he  started  The  Idler.  The 
essays  in  these  periodicals  are  seldom  read,  because  they  are 
written  in  the  heavy  Latinized  style  which  Macaulay  termed 
Johnsonese,  that  is,  peculiar  to  Johnson.  Boswell  suggested 
that  it  was  due  to  Johnson's  admiration  of  Sir  Thomas  Browne, 
a  writer  of  the  Miltonic  period. 

The  Dictionary.  —  A  dictionary  is  a  book  that  contains 
the  words  of  a  language  with  their  meanings.  Long  ago 
when  the  English  monks  came  to  a  word  that  might  be  mis- 
understood in  any  manuscript,  especially  Latin,  they  put  its 
meaning  at  the  side  of  the  manuscript  in  easy  Latin  or  Eng- 
lish. A  collection  of  such  words  was  a  glossary,  so  called 
because  it  contained  a  list  of  glosses  or  explanations. 

Near  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  came  the  ear- 
liest Latin-English  dictionaries.  Dictionaries  of  French, 
Spanish,  and  Italian  appeared  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  About  the  same  time  came  English  dictionaries 


232  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

with  explanations  in  English  for  the  use  of  "  women  and  other 
unskilful  persons.1'  In  1721  was  published  Nathaniel 
Bailey's  English  dictionary,  giving  the  derivation  of  the 
words.  It  was  on  this  book  that  Johnson  based  his  Dictionary 
(1755),  in  which  are  given  quotations  to  illustrate  the  different 
uses  of  words. 

Journey  to  the  Western  Isles.  —  In  1773,  when  Johnson 
was  sixty-four  years  of  age,  he  took  a  journey  to  Scotland, 
the  literary  outcome  of  which  appears  in  his  Journey  to  the 
Western  Isles  of  Scotland  (1775).  In  this  book  is  the  most 
eloquent  passage  that  Johnson  ever  composed.  He  is 
describing  the  emotions  raised  in  his  mind  on  visiting  the 
island  of  lona. 

Whatever  withdraws  us  from  the  power  of  our  senses,  what- 
ever makes  the  past,  the  distant,  or  the  future,  predominate 
over  the  present,  advances  us  in  the  dignity  of  thinking  be- 
ings. Far  from  me  and  from  my  friends  be  such  frigid  philos- 
ophy as  may  conduct  us  indifferent  and  unmoved  over  any 
ground  which  has  been  dignified  by  wisdom,  bravery,  or  virtue. 
That  man  is  little  to  be  envied  whose  patriotism  would  not 
gain  force  upon  the  plains  of  Marathon,  or  whose  piety  would 
not  grow  warmer  among  the  ruins  of  lona. 

In  1781  Johnson  wrote  Lives  of  the  Poets.  The  last  literary 
work  of  his  old  age  is  entertaining  in  spite  of  its  lack  of 
sympathy  with  Milton  and  Gray.  The  language  is  simpler 
than  in  any  of  his  earlier  works,  more  like  that  of  his  con- 
versations. Sometimes  the  anecdotes  are  racy,  and  often 
the  criticism  is  keen. 

Johnson's  Place  in  Literary  History.  —  In  his  seventy- 
fifth  year  Johnson  was  laid  to  rest  in  Westminster  Abbey. 
He  was  most  fortunate  in  his  biographer,  whose  unique 
skill  has  won  for  Johnson  many  admirers.  Fond  of  power, 
he  was  often  too  eager  for  victory  to  admit  that  he  had  made 
a  mistake.  Though  at  times  uncouth  in  manner  and  ap- 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD 


233 


pearance,  he  was  really  a  kind-hearted  man  with  unusual 
courage  and  endurance.  Johnson  is  so  human,  so  sane  in 
the  more  important  aspects  of  life,  so  typical  of  the  age  in 
which  he  lived,  that  he  will  always  occupy  a  position  of 
respect  in  English  literary  history. 


EDMUND  BURKE  (1729-1797) 

The  Sublime  and  Beautiful.  —  Swift,  Steele,  and  Edmund 
Burke  were  all  born  in  Dublin,  the  last  of  them  in  1729. 
After  receiving  his 
higher  education  at 
Trinity  College,  Dub- 
lin, Burke  went  to 
London  in  his  twenty- 
first  year  and  studied 
law. 

His  essay  on  The 
Sublime  and  Beautiful 
(1756)  is  a  discussion 
of  "  the  origin  of  our 
ideas  of  the  Sublime 
and  Beautiful."  He 
considers  that  the  sub- 
lime is  that  which 
arouses  a  sense  of  awe 
and  terror,  a  theory 
that  was  applied  in 
such  sensational  or  so-called  Gothic  romances  as  Walpole's 
Otranto.  Burke's  essay,  with  its  criticism  of  poetry  and 
painting,  influenced  the  famous  Lessing  of  Germany. 

Beginning  of  Burke's  Political  Career.  —  Burke's  career 
as  a  statesman  began  in  1765,  when  he  was  admitted  to 
Parliament  as  a  member  of  the  Whig  party.  Six  years  later 


FIG.  78.  —  Edmund  Burke. 


234  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

parliamentary  debates  began  to  be  reported  in  the  daily 
newspapers,  and  popular  approval  came  speedily  to  those 
who  were  eloquent.  The  outcome  was  a  display  of  oratory 
such  as  Britain  had  never  known,  among  the  orators  being 
Fox,  Pitt,  and  Burke. 

Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America.  —  It  was  on  March 
22, 1775,  that  Burke,  as  a  member  of  the  minority  or  Opposi- 
tion party,  delivered  in  the  House  of  Commons  his  famous 
Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America,  sometimes  known  as  the 
Speech  on  Conciliation  with  the  Colonies. 

The  speech  is  divided  into  four  parts  :  (1)  the  introduction ; 
(2)  why  Britain  should,  try  to  conciliate  the  Colonies  — 
(a)  their  peculiar  circumstances,  (6)  the  uselessness  of  force, 
(c)  the  character  of  the  Colonists;  (3)  what  the  British 
concession  should  be  —  giving  the  Colonists  a  direct  interest 
in  the  British  Constitution;  (4)  the  conclusion,  wherein 
Burke  answers  the  possible  objections  to  his  speech  in  favor 
of  compromise.  At  the  very  end  he  calls  attention  to  the 
common  interests  of  the  British  people  in  Am  erica  (Colonists) 
and  the  British  people  in  the  old  homeland. 

The  Revolution  in  France.  —  Among  Burke's  political 
writings  is  his  Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France  (1790), 
in  which  he  deplores  the  execution  of  Marie  Antoinette, 
Queen  of  France.  "'The  age  of  chivalry  is  gone,"  said  the 
orator.  Yes,  the  age  of  chivalry  seems  to  have  been  gone 
two  centuries  earlier,  for  in  1587  Mary  Stuart  was  be- 
headed, yet  no  swords  "  leaped  from  their  scabbards." 

2.  POETS 
ALEXANDER  POPE  (1688-1744) 

Earlier  Years.  —  By  the  time  he  was  twelve  years  of  age 
Alexander  Pope  had  some  knowledge  of  Greek,  Latin,  and 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD 


235 


English  poetry.     He  had  written  verses  for  his  own  pleasure 

as  well  as  a  play  that  was  performed  by  his  schoolmates. 

Once  the  boy  was  cruelly 

flogged  for  writing  some 

laughable  lines  about  his 

schoolmaster. 

Pope's  first  important 
literary  work  was  the 
Essay  on  Criticism 
(1711),  a  didactic  or 
argumentative  poem 
hich  was  praised  by 
The  Spectator,  and 
brought  about  an  intro- 
duction to  Addison  and 
Swift,  the  latter  of 
whom  became  his  life- 
long friend.  The  poem 
lays  down  the  rules 
that  a  poet  ought  to 
observe  in  his  art,  and 
it  holds  up  the  ancients 


From  the  painting  by  Richardson 


and     the     French     as 

models    who    follow    Nature.      Most    of    us    are 

with  such  pithy  brilliant  lines  as  — 


FIG.  79.  —  Alexander  Pope. 

familiar 


Trust  not  yourself ;  but  your  defects  to  know, 
Make  use  of  every  friend  —  and  every  foe. 
A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing ; 
Drink  deep.  — 213. 

Be  not  the  first  by  whom  the  new  are  tried, 
Nor  yet  the  last  to  lay  the  old  aside.  —  335. 


True  ease  in  writing  comes  from  art,  not  chance, 

As  those  move  easiest  who  have  learned  to  dance.  —  362. 


236 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


The  Rape  of  the  Lock.  —  The  first  edition  of  The  Rape  of 
the  Lock  appeared  in  1712,  and  beyond  a  doubt  it  is  the 
cleverest  mock  epic  that  has  ever  been  written.  None  of 
Pope's  works  is  so  original  or  so  playful.  Its  saucy  wit  runs 
through  the  whole  five  cantos. 

The  young  Lord  Petre  had  cut  a  lock  of  hair  from  the  head 
of  Arabella  Fermor,  a  maid  of  honor  at  the  court  of  Queen 
Anne.  This  led  to  a  coolness  between  the  two  families,  and 
a  Mr.  Caryll  suggested  that  Pope  should  try  to  bring  peace 
by  writing  a  poem  that  might  soothe  the  feelings  of  the  lady 
and  her  friends.  Pope  wrote  The  Rape  of  the  Lock,  a  copy 
of  which  was  sent  to  the  lady,  whom  he  calls  Belinda. 

If  to  her  share  some  female  errors  fall, 

Look  on  her  face,  and  you'll  forget  them  all.  —  Canto  II,  17. 

Homer's  Iliad  and  Odyssey.  —  The  Iliad  is  an 
ancient  Greek  poem  dealing  with  the  siege  and  capture  of 

Ilium  or  Troy,  whose  in- 
habitants were  known  as 
Trojans.  It  is  the  oldest 
of  all  European  epics  or 
heroic  poems.  Pope's 
version  of  Homer's  Iliad 
(1715-1720)  was  an  enor- 
mous task,  but  if  his 
body  was  weak,  his  intel- 


After  Flaxman 


FIG.  80.  —  Ulysses  gazing  upon  his  Dying  Dog. 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD  237 

lect  was  strong.  If  it  is  not  a  literal  translation,  at  least  it 
strives  to  convey  the  spirit  of  the  Iliad  in  a  manner  adapted 
to  the  taste  of  the  age.  It  is  in  the  speeches  of  the  heroes 
that  the  English  poet  achieves  the  highest  results. 

The  earliest  European  romance  in  verse  is  the  Odyssey. 
It  is  an  epic  of  adventure  whose  hero  is  Odysseus  or  Ulysses, 
and  the  poem  narrates  his  homeward  voyage  after  the  siege 
of  Troy.  The  first  part  of  Pope's  version  of  the  Odyssey 
appeared  in  1725,  a  task  in  which  he  was  aided  by  others. 
The  English  version  of  these  two  Greek  poems  brought 
Pope  a  handsome  fortune. 

The  Dunciad.  —  In  1728  appeared  the  first  edition  of  the 
Dunciad,  a  poem  about  persons  whom  the  author  regarded 
as  dunces  or  blockheads.  The  author  pretends  that  the 
throne  of  Dullness  is  vacant,  and  he  suggests  one  after  an- 
other of  his  literary  enemies  for  the  place  of  honor.  Most 
of  the  persons  held  up  to  ridicule  are  now  almost  forgotten. 
The  satire  aroused  so  much  feeling  that  for  a  time  the  poet 
carried  a  pistol  and  was  accompanied  by  a  dog  which  seemed 
to  enjoy  good  health. 

Essay  on  Man.  —  The  last  of  Pope's  more  notable  poems 
is  the  Essay  on  Man  (1732-1734).  Milton  professed  to 
write  Paradise  Lost  in  order  to  "  justify  the  ways  of  God  to 
man  "  ;  Pope  in  this  poem  proposes  to  "  vindicate  the  ways 
of  God  to  man."  He  seeks  to  show  that  this  is  the  best 
possible  world,  even  if  man  cannot  understand  some  of  its 
apparent  blemishes.  As  Pope  puts  it  - 

'Tis  but  a  part  we  see,  and  not  a  whole.  —  60. 
Or  again  — 

Hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  breast : 
Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest.  —  95. 

Pope  at  Twickenham.  —  After  the  death  of  his  father  in 
1717  Pope  leased  an  estate  at  Twickenham  in  the  suburbs 


238  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  London,  and  there  he  entertained  many  a  celebrity.  For 
a  time  he  was  friendly  with  one  of  his  neighbors,  Lady  Mary 
Montagu.  Next  to  his  mother,  who  died  in  1733,  the  woman 
whom  he  revered  most  was  Martha  Blount,  whom  he  had 
known  since  childhood.  In  his  will  he  left  her  most  of  his 
property,  and  he  requested  that  he  should  be  buried  near  his 
parents.  His  wishes  were  carried  out  in  1744. 

Pope's  Literary  Position.  —  Pope  is  the  prmee-dL^ociet^ 
poets ;  that  is,  he  was  mainly  a  town  poet  at  a  time  when 
London  demanded  verse  which  reflected  the  ideas  and  customs 
of  polite  society.  If  he  is  less  vigorous  than  Dryden,  he  is 
more  graceful  and  polished.  Shakespeare  alone  has  coined 
more  phrases  that  have  passed  into  everyday  speech.  In 
the  use  of  the  heroic  couplet  Pope  attained  a  perfection 
that  made  imitation  hopeless,  and  thus  indirectly  and  un- 
consciously he  helped  to  bring  about  a  change  of  fashion 
in  poetic  composition. 

JAMES  THOMSON  (1700-1748) 

In  the  sixth  chapter  we  noticed  that  pastoral  poetry  pro- 
fesses to  deal  with  shepherds  or  other  people  who  live  in  the 
country.  Spenser  in  his  Shepherd's  Calendar  makes  roses, 
daffodils,  and  primroses  bloom  at  the  same  time,  while 
Milton  in  his  Lycidas  has  three  kinds  of  berries  at  a  time 
of  the  year  when  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  them.  Ac- 
curate observation  comes  only  to  him  whose  heart  is  filled 
with  a  love  of  nature  for  its  own  sake. 

Thomson's  Seasons.  —  James  Thomson  received  his 
higher  education  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  When 
he  rode  southward  to  London,  in  his  pocket  was  a  blank- 
verse  poem  called  Winter  (1726),  the  first  of  the  four  parts  of 
The  Seasons.  Instead  of  imitating  the  fashionable  heroic 
couplets  of  Dryden  and  Pope,  Thomson's  theme  goes  back 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD  239 

to  Spenser's  Shepherd's  Calendar,  while  the  blank  verse  and 
the  diction  are  akin  to  those  of  Milton. 

The  rest  of  the  poem,  the  parts  dealing  with  Spring, 
Summer,  and  Autumn,  appeared  between  1727  and  1730. 
The  first  suggestion  of  the  poem  may  have  come  to  him  as 
an  undergraduate  in  Edinburgh,  when  he  was  studying 
Virgil's  Georgics  (rural  poems) .  It  has  the  didactic  manner  of 
the  classical  period.  Autumn,  for  instance,  celebrates  the 
river  Tweed  near  whose  banks  the  good-natured  poet  spent 
childhood's  days.  The  Seasons  exercised  great  influence  in 
Britain,  France,  and  Germany,  as  it  was  the  outcome  of  a 
direct  observation  of  nature. 

Thomson's  Plays.  —  Thomson's  plays  are  now  almost  for- 
gotten, the  only  one  of  consequence  being  the  masque  of 
Alfred,  written  with  the  help  of  his  friend  David  Mallet. 
Its  memory  is  preserved  through  the  stanzas  of,  Rule 
Britannia,  which  to  this  day  remains  one  of  the  most  spirited 
of  national  songs. 

The  Castle  of  Indolence.  —  In  1748  appeared  The  Castle 
of  Indolence,  an  allegory  written  in  the  Spenserian  stanza. 
As  The  Seasons  displays  the  changeful  beauty  of  the  year, 
so  this  poem  presents  an  atmosphere  of  dreamy  repose,  which 
soothes  the  fancy  of  those  who  long  for  leisure.  As  in  Tenny- 
son's Lotos-Eaters,  the  dwellers  in  the  enchanted  castle, 
which  is  in  the  land  of  Drowsyhead,  lie  steeped  in  easy 
luxury. 

Thomson's  sentiments  are  pure  and  elevating.  Like  Gold- 
smith he  was  careless  about  money,  generous,  unselfish, 
though  rather  indolent  in  his  habits.  Like  Goldsmith,  when 
the  author  of  The  Seasons  died  (1748),  he  had  not  an  enemy  in 
London. 


240 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


THOMAS  GRAY  (1716-1771) 

Another  poet  that  avoided  the  heroic  couplet  was  Thomas 
Gray.  After  going  to  school  at  Eton  he  went  to  Cambridge, 
where  he  displayed  a  love  for  the  ancient  classics.  His  first 

notable  poem  was  the  ode  On  a 

Distant  Prospect  of  Eton  College 
(1742),  whose  closing  lines  are 
familiar : 

No  more ;  where  ignorance  is  bliss, 
"Tls  folly  to  be  wise. 

Gray's  Elegy. — Gray  resembled 
most  of  the  chief  writers  of  the 
classical  period  in  being  fond  of 
moralizing,  a  taste  which  finds 
immortal  expression  in  the  Elegy 
Written  in  a  Country  Churchyard 
(Stoke  Poges).  The  poet's  clas- 
sical taste  was  too  pure  to  be 
content  with  anything  but  care- 
fully polished  verses.  Written  in  1750  in  quatrains,  that 
is,  stanzas. _o£ -four  lines  with  alternate"""  rimes,  the  noble 
sentiments  of  this  poem  are  set  forth  in  lines  so  perfect 
that  they  possess  an  undying  charm.  Its  solemn  stanzas 
roll  out  their  muffled  music  like  the  deep  tones  of  a  cathe- 
dral bell,  reaching  and  teaching  many  a  heart  in  every  land 
of  civilization. 

Welsh  and  Norse  Themes.  —  Gray's  Letters  reveal  the 
clear,  elegant  style  of  their  author,  and  his  later  poems  are 
mainly  concerned  with  Old  Welsh  and  Old  Norse  themes. 
The  Bard  (1757)  is  the  most  striking  of  the  Welsh  poems  in 
English,  while  The  Fatal  Sisters  and  the  Descent  of  Odin 
(1768)  are  the  earliest  specimens  of  Old  Norse  literature 


From  a  portrait  by  Grosch 
FIG.  81.  —  Thomas  Gray. 


THE  CLASSICAL   PERIOD 


241 


FIG.  82.  —  Stoke  Poges  Churchyard. 

in  the  form  of  English  poetry.  Most  of  Gray's  work  is 
classical,  but  here  he  has  chosen  romantic  themes,  and  has 
treated  them  with  imagination  and  feeling. 

WILLIAM  COLLINS  (1721-1759) 

William  Collins  was  a  man  who  understood  the  magic 
that  lies  in  variety  of  cadence  and  in  glimpses  of  hidden 
beauty.  After  leaving  Oxford  he  deservedly  gained  renown 
by  his  odes  (1746-1747).  He  wrote  even  less  than  Gray, 
and  he  wasted  no  words.  In  twelve  lines  his  How  Sleep  the 
Brave  (1746)  contains  more  true  poetry  than  some  poems  that 
are  hundreds  of  lines  in  length. 

How  sleep  the  brave  who  sink  to  rest 
By  all  their  country's  wishes  blest ! 
When  Spring,  with  dewy  fingers  cold, 


242  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Returns  to  deck  their  hallow'd  mold, 
She  there  shall  dress  a  sweeter  sod 
Than  Fancy's  feet  have  ever  trod. 

By  fairy  hands  their  knell  is*  rung, 
By  forms  unseen  their  dirge  is  sung ; 
There  Honour  comes,  a  pilgrim  grey, 
To  bless  the  turf  that  wraps  their  clay ; 
And  Freedom  shall  awhile  repair, 
To  dwell  a  weeping  hermit  there  ! 

Collins's  Ode  to  Evening  is  a  sort  of  foretaste  of  the  manner 
of  Keats.  Some  of  his  work,  like  The  Passions,  possesses 
the  classical  characteristics  of  this  period.  It  is  in  the  ode 
On  the  Highlands  that  he  alludes  to  Skye's  lone  isle  and  — 

Pale  red  Culloden,  where  these  hopes  were  drowned. 

SUMMARY 

1.  The  classical  period  of  English  literature  means  the  half 
century  or  more  during  which  most  writers  tried  to  write  as 
they  believed  the  ablest  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans 
had  written.     The   English   authors   aimed   at   simplicity, 
elegance,  and  common  sense. 

2.  Journalism  now  began  to  shape  public  opinion  as  well 
as  literature,  the  first  of  the  great  English  journalists  being 
Defoe,  whose  Robinson  Crusoe  is  the  most  interesting  story 
of  its  kind  ever  written. 

3.  The  most  energetic  prose  writer  of  his  time  was  Dean 
Swift.     He  and  Pope  were  the  chief  writers  of  the  Tory  (now 
Conservative)  party.     No  one  needs  to  be  coaxed  to  read 
Swift's  Gulliver's  Travels,  a  satire  in  the  form  of  allegory. 

4.  The  two  leading  essayists  at  that  time  were  Addison 
and  Steele,  both  of  whom,  like  Defoe  and  Burke,  were  Whigs 
(now  Liberals).    They  created  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley   in 
The  Spectator. 


THE  CLASSICAL  PERIOD  243 

5.  Boswell's   Life  of  Johnson  has  no  equal   in  English 
literature.     Johnson's  Lives  of  the  Poets  contains  some  good 
anecdotes  and  some  good  criticism. 

6.  Burke  tried  to  show  the  British  House  of  Commons  why 
it  would  be  prudent  to  retain  the  American  Colonies  by  good 
will  rather  than  by  compulsion.     His  noble  Speech  on  Con- 
ciliation with  the  Colonies  failed  to  change  the  policy  of  the 
government. 

7.  The  most  brilliant  poet  of  the  early  eighteenth  century 
was  Pope,  whose  didactic  poems  and  satires  contain  many 
familiar  passages.     The  Rape  of  the  Lock  is  good-natured  and 
witty. 

8.  Keen  observation  of  nature  marks  Thomson's  Seasons. 

9.  Gray's  Elegy,  a  favorite  even  in  foreign  countries,  needs 
no  praise. 

10.  Some  of  Collins's  odes  are  highly  poetic ;  that  is,  they 
please  by  their  beauty.     Both  Gray  and  Collins  at  times 
show  a  taste  for  the  unusual  or  romantic. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  Suggest  one  or  more  causes  that  may  have  led  to  the  classical 
period  in  English  literary  history. 

2.  Explain  the  following  words  or  phrases:    Grub  Street,  Dis- 
senter, Picaresque  (not  picturesque),  Drapier,  Iliad  and  Odyssey, 
Dunciad,  Georgics,  Quatrains. 

3.  Read  at  least  a  part  of  Robinson  Crusoe,  and  in  your  own  way 
give  your  opinion  of  its  style  and  argument.     What  induced  Defoe 
to  think  of  such  a  story  ? 

4.  Name  any  one  of  Swift's  works,  and  tell  what  you  know  about 
its  contents. 

5.  Compare  the  style  of  Addison  and  Steele,  and  point  out  the 
part  played  by  each  in  portraying  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley.     How  did 
The  Spectator  influence  society  and  literature  ? 

6.  What  do  you  know  about  dictionaries  prior  to  1755?     Dis- 
tinguish between  Jonson  and  Johnson. 

7.  What  caused  oratory  to  become  popular  during  the  eighteenth 


244  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

century  ?  Suppose  one  of  your  friends  has  written  for  information 
about  Burke's  Conciliation  with  the  Colonies.  Answer  in  the  form  of 
a  letter. 

8.  Can  you  suggest  any  reason  for  the  friendship  of  Swift  and 
Pope?     Quote  one  or  more  passages  from  Pope's  didactic  poems. 
In  what  respect  does  Pope's  work  resemble  (a)  Shakespeare's,  and 
(6)  Milton's? 

9.  Distinguish  between  the  verse  or  metre  of  Pope  and  Thomson. 
Compare  Thomson's  Castle  of  Indolence  with  Tennyson's  Lotos- 
Eaters. 

10.  State  the  name  of  the  churchyard  to  which  Gray's  Elegy 
alludes,  and  write  a  paraphrase  of  the  poem,  giving  your  own  im- 
pressions.   What  kind  of  verse  gave  Collins  his  literary  reputation  ? 

ADDITIONAL  AUTHORS  WITH  CHIEF  WORKS 

Prose  Writers.  —  John  Arbuthnot  (1667-1735),  History  of  John 
Bull;  George  Berkeley  (1685-1753),  The  Minute  Philosopher; 
David  Hume  (1711-1776),  Essays;  William  Robertson  (1721-1793), 
History  of  Charles  V;  Adam  Smith  of  Kirkcaldy  (1723-1790), 
Wealth  of  Nations;  Thomas  Warton  (1728-1790),  History  of  Eng- 
lish Poetry. 

Poets.  —  Matthew  Prior  (1664-1721),  Social  Verses;  Isaac  Watts 
(1673-1748),  Hymns;  John  Gay  (1685-1732),  Fables  and  The 
Beggar's  Opera;  Allan  Ramsay  of  Leadhills  (1686-1758),  The  Gentle 
Shepherd,  the  last  British  pastoral  of  merit,  the  humor  and  natural- 
ness of  which  influenced  Burns  and  even  Wordsworth;  Robert 
Blair  (1699-1746),  The  Grave;  Edward  Young  (1683-1765),  Night 
Thoughts;  Charles  Wesley  (1708-1788),  Hymns;  Mark  Akenside 
(1721-1770),  Pleasures  of  the  Imagination;  John  Home  (1722-1808), 
Douglas,  a  tragedy  in  blank  verse,  founded  on  the  ballad  of  Gil 
Morice. 

SUPPLEMENTARY  READING 

a.  For  Classes 

All  the  classics  of  this  period  are  published  in  inexpensive  edi- 
tions by  firms  such  as  Macmillan,  Allyn  and  Bacon,  Appleton, 
Scribner's,  Longmans,  Houghton  Mifflin,  John  Lane,  Oxford  Press, 
Cassell,  American  Book  Co.,  Ginn,  Heath,  Sanborn,  Silver  Burdett, 
Putnam's,  Button,  Crowell.  The  foregoing  series  vary  in  type, 
binding,  etc.,  and  the  prices  range  from  $  .10  to  $  .60. 


RISE  OF  THE  NOVEL  247 

exploit  takes  place  in  Denmark.  After  the  Norman  Con- 
quest (1000)  iuinanooD  nf  Rivalry  Became  popular  in  England. 
the  most  important  of  which  are  concerned  with  King 
Arthur.  These  are  based  upon  legends,  some  of  which  may 

""Be  older  than  the  story  of  Beowulf.  Among  such  stories 
of  Arthur  is  Malory's  Morte  d' Arthur,  the  most  notable  prose 
romance  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

Later  English  Narratives.  —  Pastoral  romances  such  as 
Sidney's  Arcadia  (1590)  are  nothing  more  than  slight  modi- 

^fications  of  the  older  romances  of  chivalry.  (r£fiene  the 
dramatist  wrote  not  only  romances  or  u~love  pamphlets/' 
but  narratives  of  low  life  in  Shakespearean  London.  His 
Life  of  Ned  Browne  (1592),  written  in  the  first  person,  is  not 
unlike  the  picaresque  or  rogue  stories  of  Defoe.  When  every 
hero,  as  in  heroic  romance,  is  endowed  with  courtly  manners, 
character-drawing  becomes  more  difficult,  even  with  the  aid 
of  no  little  real  wit.  Heroic  romance  such  as  Mackenzie's 
Aretina  (1661)  gave  way  to  tales  of  adventure  like  Robinson 
Crusoe  (1719)  and  romances  of  roguery  like  Defoe's  CapfarnT 
ISmgleton  (1720). 

^TRe  final  contribution  to  the  development  of  tfrft  novel 
injEngland  came  through  the  work  of  Addison^mdSteele. 
In  the  sketches  of  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley,  for  example,  we  have 
a  criticism  of  manners,  a  more  accurate  portrayal  of  human 
character  than  any  earlier  writers  attempt.  People  enjoyed 
these  sketches,  and  they  demanded  more  of  them.  This  led 
to  the  novel  of  real  life,  the  novel  of  manners,_  which  is  the 
most  important  literaryachievement  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
What  is  a  Romance  ?  —  Romance  is  so  called  because  at 
first  it  was  simply  a  narrative  translated  from  Old  French, 
that  is,  from  a  Romance  language  or  a  language  based  upon 
that  of  the  ancient  Romans.  Romancejiggeals  to  our  love 
of  surprise^  to  our  love  of  what  rrtfnusual  or  unknown^ In"~~ 
its  worst  form  a  romance  is  fantastic  and  improbable ;  in  its 


2-48  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

best  form  it  has  a  vision  of  the  ideal,  a  vision  of  the  big  dream 
that  haunts  and  cheers  us  in  our  noblest  moods. 

What  is  a  Novel  ?  — The  modern  novel,  as  we  might  expect, 
came  into  existence  during  a  matter-of-fact  period,  when 
prose  was  greater  than  poetry.  The  novella  of  Italy,  whose 
people  are  natural  story-tellers,  gives  us  the  term  novel. 
The  original  novella  was  a  simple  short  story,  concerned 
mainly  with  a  single  incident. 

A  novel  is  distinguished  froin_a  romance  by  its  closjer 
adherence  to  real  life  and  manners.  It  tries  to  base  its 
plot,  incidents,  and  characters  upon  what  might  have 
readily  occurred  in  ordinary  society.  It  appeals  to  emotion 
rather  than  to  fancy,  and  it  is  more  democratic  than  the 
earlier  romance.  At  its  worst  it  depresses  the  reader  or 
tends  to  make  him  have  a  low  opinion  of  mankind ;  at  its 
best  it  is  a  helpful  study  in  character,  in  the  power  of  each 
person  for  good  or  for  evil. 

Some  specimens  of  prose  fiction  contain  the  best  elements 
of  both  the  romance  and  the  novel.  These  are  not  likely  to 
perish  quickly  because  they  reveal  interest  in  personality, 
sympathy  with  mankind,  a  confidence  that  men  and  women 
are  capable  of  rising  to  better  things. 

The  Aims  of  Prose  Fiction.  —  The  aims  of  prose  fiction,  as 
stated  by  those  who  have  written  it,  may  be  summed  up 
thus:  (1) i  to  give  pleasure  to  the  reader;  (2)  to  win  his 
confidence  by  an  appearance  of  truth  or  sincerity;  (3)  to 
touch  his  emotions ;  J4)jt&  appeal  to  histegtspn ;  (5)  to  show 
him  life  as  it  is,  as i  itjgg-^ _«.s  it  will  be,  or  as  it  ought  to  be. 

SAMUEL  RICHARDSON  (1689-3761) 

Letter-writing.  —  The  cheap  mail  service  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  encouraging  a  vast  system  of  correspondence, 
altered  the  character  of  letter-writing.  Two  centuries  ago, 


EISE  OF  THE  NOVEL 


249 


for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  English  literature,  prose 

became  distinctly  superior  to  poetry,  and  one  of  the  forms 

of  prose  composition  is  letter-writing.     So  seldom,  however, 

were  social  letters  written  during  the  eighteenth  century 

that   people   often   preserved 

their   friends'    letters,    which 

sometimes    were    really    too 

good  to  be  burned.    Of  course, 

the  best  letters  are  those  that 

have  the  ease  and  geniality  of 

conversations    with    intimate 

friends.       Among   the  corre- 

spondents that  achieved  dis- 

tinction    were     Lady     Mary 

Montagu    (1689-1762),    Lord 

Chesterfield  (1694-1773),  and 

the  poet  Gray. 

It  was  in  boyhood  that 
Samuel  Richardson  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  literary  re- 
nown. Born  in  Derbyshire 
in  the  same  year  as  Lady 
Montagu,  young  Richardson, 
a  pupil  in  the  village  school, 
used  to  write  love-letters  for 
maidservants  and  others  who 
had  no  skill  with  pen  and  ink.  He  became  a  successful 
London  printer  as  well  as  a  writer  of  novels  in  the  form  of 
letters. 

The  Novels.  —  Richardson  was  over  fifty  years  of  age 
when  he  wrote  Pamela  (1741),  the  first  European  novel  in 
the  modern  sense  oTEKe'term.  Pamela  Andrews,  the  heroine, 
".  who  fc  no  simpleton.  She  is  annoyed  by  her 


FIG.  83.  —  Samuel  Richardson. 


employer's  son,  but  finally  he  marries  her  and  becomes  an 


250  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ideal  husband.     The  ladies  went  into  raptures  over  this  book, 
and  five  editions  were  sold  within  a  year. 

Richardson's   second  letter-novel  was   Clarissa    Harlowe 
(1748j_in  seven  volumes.    Clarissa  is  a  young  woman  of  good 
family  and  of  noble  character.     Her  parents  wish  her  to  be 
'married  to  a  man  for  whom  she  has  no  affection.    Tiovelace, 
aTBHIliant  witty  scoundrel,  gains  her  confidence^,  but  she 
'loses  her  faith  in  Jinn  as  soon  as  she  discovers  his  real  char- 
acter.    She  refuses  his  offers  of  marriage  anddies  in  London^ 
lonely  and  broken-hearted.     This  is  considereoTto  be  KicharJ^ 
son's  masterpiece. 

The  longest  of  this  author's  works  is  Sir  Charles  Grandison 
(1753),  named  after  one  who  is  supposed  to  be  an  ideal 
gentleman.  Lady  Montagu  declared  that  Richardson  in 
this  novel  knew  nothing  about  the  society  which  he  attempted 
to  describe.  Certainly  Sir  Charles's  letters  must  have  tried 
the  patience  of  Miss  Byron  if  she  had  really  attempted  to 
read  them. 

Richardson's  Position  in  Literary  History.  —  Richardson 
discovered  that  people  were  interested  in  their  own  feelings. 
His  ^fTLtJmpntnil  nnvrln  plrnned  people  of  his  own  time  by 
depicting  life  as  it  is  and  life  as  he  thought  it  should  be.  Pew 
people  read  his  works  to-day,  because  he  uses  too  many  words, 
and  is  therefore  -tedious.  However,  he  shows  insight  into 
human  motives,  ancTTns  works  exercised  considerable  in- 
fluence upon  the  writers  of  France  and  Germany. 

HENRY  FIELDING  (1707-1754) 

Playwriter  and  Journalist.  —  Among  those  who  jeered 
and  laughed  heartily  at  the  first  appearance  of  Richardson's 
Pamela  was  Fielding,  a  witty  lawyer  of  thirty-three,  whose 
birthplace  was  Somerset.  Henry  Fielding  was  educated 
at  Eton  and  at  the  University  of  Leyden  in  Holland.  When 


EISE  OF  THE  NOVEL 


251 


he  began  his  career  in  London,  he  became  a  playwriter  and 
a  journalist.  Though  his  comedies  and  farces  are  now  mostly 
forgotten,  he  learned  how  to  give  unity  to  his  plots,  a  lesson 
which  proved  of  great  use  when  he  became  a  novelist. 

Novelist.  —  His  first  novel 
was  Joseph  .Aiidrgws  (1742), 
whjcV>  he-hn.mm  ft.*  n,  .CLq.riafl- 


ture_of^  Pamela.  Fielding, 
however,  soon  forgot  his 
mockery  of  Richardson,  and 
the  novel  developed  into  a 
h  umorpus  pictui^e_of_£ertain 
pHase^of  life  in  thlT  eigh- 
teenth century. 

The  next  novel  was  Jong- 
thauJ¥M  (1743),  which  con- 
tains veiled  jsaijre  against 
Sir  Robert  Walpole,  at  that 


From  the  engraving  by  Cazenave,  after  Reynolds 
FIG.  84.  —  Henry  Fielding. 


time  the  British  Prime  Min- 

ister.    If  this  story  of  a  thief 

is  the  weakest,    Tom  ^fqnes 

(1749),  which  its  author  regarded  as  an 

strongest  of  his  novels.     It  mocks  at  the  sentimen 

Richardson, 


is  the 
m  of 
s^  noted  for  its  plotconstruction  and  its 


In  AmeliaJ^lTdl),  the  last  of  his  novels,  Fielding  alludes 
to  the  conditions  oj  prison  life.  It  is  the  story  of  a  jvojnan 
married  to  a,  weakling  nam^dJIlaptaiiuBoQth.  Three  years 


later  Yielding,  who  Tiad  fallen  into  ill  health,  went  to  Portu- 
gal, and  died  at  Lisbon  in  1754. 

Fielding's  Literary  Position.  —  Like  Steele  the  Irishman 
and  Thomson  the  Scotsman,  Fielding  was  rather  careless 
about  money  matters,  witty,  and  good-natured.  Field- 
ing surpasses  all  the  novelists  of  the  eighteenth  century  in 


252  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

his  ability  to  construct  a  plot,  although  his  work  is  marred 
by  occasional  vulgarity.  In  man^iess^  in  sincerity,  in 
knowledge  of  the  worTdf  ^Fielding  is  distinctly  superior  to  his 
predecessor  in  prose  fiction. 

LAURENCE  STERNE  (1713-1768) 

Among  English  men  of  letters  are  three  clergymen  - 
Robert  Herrick  (1591-1674),  Dean  Swift  (1667-1745),  and 
Laurence  Sterne  —  all  of  whom  might  have  been  more 
successful  in  some  other  profession.  It  is  difficult  to  classify 
Sterne,  for  his  stories  hayp  h'ttte  or  no  definiteplpt.  and  yet 
they  are  specimens  of  prose  fiction. 

Laurence  Sterne  had  Clonmel  in  Ireland  as  his  birthplace, 
his  father's  regiment  being  stationed  there  in  the  year  1713. 
Laurence's  early  years  were  spent  in  the  barracks,  and  his 
surroundings  left  their  impress  upon  the  boy's  responsive 
nature.  In  his  twentieth  year  he  went  to  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  and  five  years  later  he  was  a  clergyman.  It  was 
because  of  his  clerical  duties  at  York  that  he  called  himself 
Mr.  Yorick. 

Chief  Works.  —The  first  volume  of  Tristram  Shandy  (1759) 
made  its  author  popular.  The  work  as  a  whole  is  lacking 
in  coherence.  Though  much  of  the  material  is  borrowed 
from  French  and  English  writers,  it  bears  the  stamp  of  Sterne's 
personality.  Here  and  there  are  vulgarities,  but  the  skill 
in  creating  characters  is  undeniable.  UncJLeJEoh^  who  was 
probably  not  unlike  Sterne's  father,  and  Corporal  Trim,  are 
two  familiar  characters  in  English  fiction. 

Sterne's  Sentimental  Journey  (1768)  came  out  shortly  before 

the  death  of  its  author.     Eased  upon  travels  through  France 

and  Italy,  it  contains  graceful  pictures  of  continental  scenes 

_and  manners.     Public  'taste  has  changed,  so  tKat  in  spite  of 

jiolittle  humor  and  pathosJ3terne's  works  are  seldom  read. 


RISE  OF  THE  NOVEL 


253 


HORACE  WALPOLE  (1717-1797) 

After  his  childhood  days  in  London,  Walpole,  who  was 
an  accomplished  letter-writer,  and  the  poet  Gray  met  at 
Eton  and  were  student  friends  at  Cambridge.  They 
travelled  together  in  Europe,  and  then  Walpole  entered 
Parliament.  In  1764  he  published  The  Castj^j^  Otranto. 


Since  the  story  professes  to  be  basesLupon  a  droam,  naturally 
it  isjxkj^and  fanciful.  The  author  supposes  that  he  is  in  a 
Gothic  castle,  and"7*  on  the  uppermost  bannister  of  a  great 
staircaseT^  saw  a  gigantic  hand  in  armour/'  For  his  own 
amusement  he  exaggerated  the 


what  is  called  a  GotMc 


The    volume    contains    a      hnimg 


iaunted  chambers,  roonxa.with  trapdoors,  bl 
The   super- 


natural events  are  relieved 
by  the  introduction  of  the 
castle  servants,  who  are  both 
natural  and  entertaining. 


TOBIAS 

(1721-1771) 

Smollett  does  what  no  lit- 
erary man  in  Britain  had 
done  before,  and  few  have 
accomplished  since.  He  cre- 
ates seamen  that  are  alive, 


From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch 
FIG.  85.  —  Tobias  Smollett. 


men  whose  s 


)eech  and 


nerscarmot. 


je  ^mistaken  for  those  of  a  landsman.     Real 


deep-sea  sailors  are  rare  in  the  world's  literature7T>ecause 
most  writers  have  not  spent  years   upon   the   deck  of  a 


254 


ENGLISH  LITEEATUEE 


vessel,  an  experience  without  which  no  man  may  hope  to 
understand  the  charm,  the  waywardness,  the  mystery  of 
the  salt  water  far  from  any  shore. 

Tobias  Smollett,  who  was  born  near  Bonhill  in  Dumbarton- 
shire, was  a  student  at  the  University  of  Glasgow,  and  then 
acquired  a  knowledge  of  surgery.  In  1739  he  went  to  London, 


FIG.  86.  —  University  of  Glasgow. 

became  surgeon's  mate  in  a  man-of-war,  saw  service  against 
the  Spaniards  in  Central  America,  left  the  navy,  and  found 
a  wife  on  the  island  of  Jamaica.  Thereafter  he  returned  to 
London. 

The  Five  Novels.  —  The  spirited  style  of  Smollett  is 
noticeable  in  Roderick  Random^  (1748),  thg^fiFst-44a5^eJ^-ef 
thje  sea,  in  English  lifpr^ry ' history.  It  is  written  from 
actual  observation  of  men  and  manners.  Its  description  of 
the  hardships  of  naval  life  is  so  vivid  that  it  aroused  the 
public  and  led  to  reforms  in  the  naval  service. 

Smollett's    other    stories    are — Peregrin e-^Pirkle-    (1751), 


EISE  OF  THE  NOVEL  255 

Ferdinand  Count  Fathom  (1753),  Sir  Launcelot  Greaves  (1762), 
and  Humphrey  Clinker  (1771),  his  masterpiece.  In  the  last 
of  his  works  he  deals  with  neither  rogues  nor  fools.  It  is  a 
rmrrafivp  jn  Ipffprs  sn  amusing  that  it  places  Smollett  among 
the  greatest  humorists  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Thackeray 
declared  that  it  is  the  most  laughable  story  which  has  ever 
been  written. 

The  Closing  Years.  —  In  1755,  after  an  absence  of  sixteen 
years,  Smollett  visited  his  native  land,  talked  of  bygone 
days  with  former  playmates,  and  once  more  felt  the  arms 
of  his  aged  mother  around  him.  Then  he  hastened  southward 
to  his  desk  in  London.  Toil  and  suffering  had  softened  him 
so  that  the  tenderness  underneath  his  proud  impetuous 
nature  rose  to  the  surface.  Concerning  the  loss  of  his  only 
daughter  in  1763  he  said  little  and  thought  much.  Eight 
years  later  in  a  cottage  by  the  sea  he  faced  life's  finish  with 
courage  and  even  with  grim  humor.  He  rests  where  the 
waters  of  the  Mediterranean  croon  their  gentle  chant  by 
night  over  the  old  English  cemetery  at  Leghorn  in  Italy. 

Smollett's  Literary  Position.  —  Smollett  had  unusual  ver- 
satility, even  if  he  is  inferior  to  both  Richardson  and  Fielding 
in  working  out  a  plan  or  plot  for  his  stories.  It  is  not  as  a 
journalist  or  as  a  writer  of  verse,  plays,  history,  and  criticism, 
but  as  a  creator  of  sea-scenes  and  picaresque  or  rogue  stories 
that  he  is  remembered.  In  portray in^^g^e^TIE? 
Trunnion  in  PereQrinePickle,  Smollett  has  scarcely  a 
rival.  Like  Fielding  he  allowed  ocfiasionaJL^^jdgaritLes 
to  deface  some  of  his  pages,  and  yet  his  odd  amusing 
characters  influenced  Sterne  and  Scott,  and  especiall£2ick- 
ens. Like  most  pioneers  Smollett  has  been  eclipsed  in  many 
respects  by  his  successors. 


256 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


OLIVER  GOLDSMITH  (1728-1774) 

What  has  drawn  the  crowd  of  Irishmen  to  the  dim  light 
at  the  street  corner?  To  an  old  familiar  tune  a  man  is 
singing  a  new  street-ballad.  On  the  outskirts  of  the 
crowd  is  a  round-faced  lad  of  nineteen,  one  of  the  students 

at  Trinity  College,  Dublin.  To- 
night he  is  listening  to  the  hawker 
who  sings  as  he  sells  copies  of 
his  broadside  ballads,  each  for  a 
penny.  No  one,  except  the  pub- 
lisher, knows  that  the  lad  who  is 
listening  to  the  ballads  is  their 
author,  and  that  his  name  is 
Oliver  Goldsmith. 

Goldsmith  came  into  the  world 
at  Pallas,  County  Longford,  Ire- 
land. The  school  at  Athlone  was 
among  those  that  the  boy  at- 
tended before  he  went  to  Trinity 
College,  where  he  received  his 
bachelor's  degree  in  1749.  Three 
years  later  he  was  a  student  of 
medicine  at  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  after  which  he  went  to  the  continent.  For  a 
year  Goldsmith  travelled  over  Europe,  at  times  playing  his 
flute  in  the  evenings  for  a  meal  and  a  bed. 

Returning  to  London  in  1756,  he  acted  for  a  short  time  as  a 
teacher,  and  was  a  proofreader  in  the  printing  office  of 
Richardson  the  novelist.  Like  Smollett,  Goldsmith  tried 
to  become  a  surgeon's  mate  in  the  navy,  but  without  avail. 
For  Smollett's  periodical,  The  British  Magazine,  he  wrote 
reviews  and  memoirs.  When  he  met  Johnson  in  1761,  the 
two  men  became  close  friends. 


From  the  painting  by  Reynolds,  National 
Portrait  Gallery 


FIG.  87. -Oliver  Goldsmith, 


RISE  OF  THE  NOVEL  257 

As  a  Poet.  —  In  1764  appeared  The  Traveller,  a  poem  which 
brought  renown  to  Goldsmith  by  reason  of  its  choice  diction 
and  graceful  style.  It  is  a  descriptive  poem  in  heroic  coup- 
lets, whose  object  is  to  show  that  contentment  depends  upon 
our  view  of  life  rather  than  upon  our  circumstances.  It  is 


FIG.  88.  — Trinity  College,  Dublin. 

mainly  based  upon  the  poet's  travels.  This  seems  to  be  the 
first  English  poem  that  contains  some  of  the  musical  place- 
names  of  America,  in  such  allusions  as  - 

Where  wild  Oswego  spreads  her  swamps  around, 

And  Niagara  stuns  with  thundering  sound.  —  411-412. 

One  of  the  best-known  poems  in  the  English  language  is 
The  Deserted  Village  (1770).  Its  object  is  to  show  that 
country  life  is  better  than  city  life,  that  agriculture  is  superior 
commerce  in  bringing  individual  and  national  happiness. 


258  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  melody  of  its  rhythm,  the  tenderness  of  its  emotion, 
and  the  delicacy  of  its  humor  have  preserved  the  original 
fragrance.  The  village,  which  Goldsmith  calls  Auburn,  is 
really  the  Irish  village  of  Lissoy,  where  the  poet  spent  some 
of  his  childhood  years. 

There,  in  his  noisy  mansion  skilled  to  rule, 

The  village  master  taught  his  little  school ; 

A  man  severe  he  was,  and  stern  to  view ; 

I  knew  him  well,  and  every  truant  knew. 

Well  had  the  boding  tremblers  learned  to  trace 

The  day's  disasters  in  his  morning's  face ; 

Full  well  they  laughed  with  counterfeited  glee 

At  all  his  jokes,  for  many  a  joke  had  he; 

Full  well  the  busy  whisper,  circling  round, 

Conveyed  the  dismal  tidings  when  he  frowned ; 

Yet  he  was  kind ;  or,  if  severe  in  aught, 

The  love  he  bore  to  learning  was  in  fault ; 

The  village  all  declared  how  much  he  knew.  —  195. 

As  a  Novelist.  —  It  is  neither  as  an  essayist  nor  as  a  poet 
that  Goldsmith  finds  a  place  in  the  present  chapter,  but  as 
the  author  of  ^The  Vicar  of  Wakefield  (1766),  a  work  which 
influenced  the  literature  of  Europe.  It  is  a  story  of  the 
trials  of  a  country  clergyman's  family^  and  shows  how  by 
Kis  faith  and  goodness  the  Vicar,  Dr.  Primrose,  finally  rises, 
above  every  misfortune.  It  is  t.hp  first,  Hnmp^jp  Tipvipl  in 
English  literature.  Tne  plot  may  be  rather  improbable, 
yet  the  good-natured  Joumor,  the  pictures  of  rural  life,  and" 
the  character-drawing  are  singularly  attractive. 

As  a  Playwright.  —  Goldsmith's  humor  is  seen  to  excel- 
lent advantage  in  The  Good-N 'aimed  Man  (1768),  a  comedy 
which  contains  the  fine  character-sketches  of  Croaker  and 
Lofty.  It  is  by  his  second  comedy  that  Goldsmith's 
dramatic  talent  is  best  known.  She  Stoops  to  Conquer 
(1773),  which  appeared  the  year  before  its  author's  death, 
is  still  as  popular  as  it  was  in  the  eighteenth  century. 


EI8E  OF  THE  NOVEL  259 

^Tony  Lumpkin  is  one  of  the  favorites  of  theatre-goers. 
The  play  is  one  of  the  merriest  and  most  natural  comedies 
of  the  British  stage. 

Goldsmith  as  Man  and  Author.  —  Goldsmith  was  far  from 
faultless,  and  yet  he  is  one  of  the  most  lovable  characters 
in  English  literature.  Too  generous  for  his  own  comfort, 
he  gave  and  forgave  with  a  kindliness  that  is  remarkable. 
Good  sense,  sympathy  with  the  unfortunate,  a  keen  concep- 
tion of  humor,  are  among  the  characteristics  of  his  work. 
His  writings  are  really  worth  reading  because  they  touch  the 
heart  and  help  to  make  life  sweeter.  Many  writers  are  more 
profound,  but  in  sincerity  and  naturalness  he  ranks  high 
among  writers  of  verse  as  well  as  prose. 

SUMMARY 

1.  Primitive   tribes  have  prose  fiction   in  the  form   of 
unwritten  myths,  while  barbaric  tribes  have  unwritten  fables 
and  fairy  tales. 

2.  One  of  the  earliest  stories  on  record  in  England   is 
Beowulf,  named  after  its  Swedish  hero. 

3.  The  novel  of  contemporary  manners  is  the  chief  literary 
product  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

4.  Richardson's  letter-novels  begin  with  Pamela,  a  novel 
whose  central  theme  is  the  subtle  insistent  power  of  woman- 
hood in  society. 

5.  In  planning  a  plot  that  works  out  naturally,  Fielding 
surpasses   all  early   novelists.     His    Tom   Jones  mocks  at 
Richardson's  sentimentalism. 

6.  Sterne's  two  prose  works  are  made  up  of  a  series  of 
incidents  that  do  not  work  out  naturally,  the  one  from  the 
other.     In  other  words,  Sterne  is  weak  in  plot  construction. 

7.  The  first  novel  of  the  supernatural  is  Walpole's  Castle 
of  Otranto. 


260  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

8.  The  first  novel  of  the  sea  is  Smollett's  Roderick  Random. 

9.  The    first    domestic    novel    is    Goldsmith's    Vicar   of 
Wakefield. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  Distinguish  between  a  romance  and  a  novel,  stating  how  the 
names  arose. 

2.  What  are  the  chief  aims  of  prose  fiction  ? 

3.  Write  a  letter  wherein  you  explain  how  the  modern  novel  came 
into  existence.     What  induced  Richardson  to  write  letter-novels? 

4.  In  what  way  did  Fielding  learn  the  desirability  of  having  a 
well-constructed  plot?     Name  one  character  in  any  of  his  novels. 

5.  Write  a  short  essay  on  any  one  of  the  works  of  a  writer  born  in 
Ireland.     Who  was  Mr.  Yorick  ? 

6.  Tell  what  you  know  about  any  novel  that  was  supposed  to  be 
the  outcome  of  a  dream. 

7.  Why  are  seafaring  characters  rare  in  prose  fiction  ? 

8.  Quote  any  passage  that  you  have  memorized  from  Goldsmith. 
In  what  way  is  any  of  Goldsmith's  work  related  to  America  ? 

9.  Who  was  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield  ?     Read  one  of  the  chapters  in 
The  Vicar  of  Wakefield,  and  write  a  paraphrase  of  it  in  your  best 
style. 

SUPPLEMENTARY   READING 

a.   For  Classes 

Inexpensive  editions  of  The  Vicar  of  Wakefield  and  other  English 
classics  have  been  published  by  the  Macmillan  Co.,  Merrill  Co.,  and 
other  firms  mentioned  near  the  close  of  the  previous  chapter. 

b.  For  Teachers  and  Others 

Biographies  of  most  of  the  authors  mentioned  in  the  present 
chapter  are  in  the  English  Men  of  Letters  series  (Macmillan),  $  .40, 
and  Great  Writers  series  (Scribner's),  $1.00.  The  following  works 
are  also  recommended : 

R.  Burton,  Masters  of  the  English  Novel,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  $1.25. 

F.  W.  Chandler,  The  Literature  of  Roguery,  2  vols.,  Bost.  (Hough- 
ton),  $3.00.  A  splendid  study  of  picaresque  stories. 

W.  L.  Cross,  The  Development  of  the  English  Novel,  N.  Y.  (Mac- 
millan),  $1.50. 


RISE  OF  THE  NOVEL  261 

W.  L.  Cross,  Life  and  Times  of  Laurence  Sterne,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
$2.50. 

C.  H.  Herford,  English  Tales  in  Verse,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $1.00. 

J.  J.  Jusserand,  The  English  Novel  in  the  Time  of  Shakespeare,  N.  Y. 
(Putnam's),  $3.50. 

A.  S.  Mackenzie,  The  Evolution  of  Literature,  N.  Y.  (Crowell), 
$2.50. 

Brander  Matthews,  The  Historical  Novel  and  Other  Essays,  N.  Y. 
(Scribner's),  $1.25. 

Bliss  Perry,  Study  of  Prose  Fiction,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $1.25. 

W.  Raleigh,  The  English  Novel,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $1.25. 

Samuel  Richardson,  Pamela,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $1.00.  Other 
novels  at  the  same  price. 

G.  Saintsbury,  The  English  Novel,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $1.50. 

W.  E.  Simonds,  Introduction  to  English  Fiction,  Bost.  (Heath), 
$.80. 

Laurence  Sterne,  A  Sentimental  Journey,  Phila.  (Lippincott), 
L.OO. 

F.  H.  Stoddard,  Evolution  of  the  English  Novel,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
$1.50. 

S.  L.  Whitcomb,  The  Study  of  a  Novel,  Bost.  (Heath),  $1.25. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 

1760-1837 

THE  romantic  period  of  English  literature  may,  for  the  sake 
of  convenience,  be  said  to  extend  from  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  George  III  to  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria.  It 
was  a  period  of  revolt,  as  shown  in  the  American  Revolution 
(1775),  the  French  Revolution  (1789),  the  mutinies  in  the 
British  navy  (1797),  the  Irish  rebellion  (1798),  and  the  in- 
dustrial revolution  brought  about  by  mechanical  inventions 
as  well  as  by  improvements  in  agriculture. 

Some  Features  of  the  Period.  —  Taste  in  literature  was 
becoming  different  from  what  it  had  been  during  the  classical 
period,  and  this  was  only  one  of  the  signs  of  a  gradual  change 
in  social  ideals,  a  change  that  affected  America  as  well  as 
Europe.     New  buildings  in  England  began  to  show  a  change 
in  style  of  architecture.     Gainsborough  was  simply  one  of  , 
several  artists  whose  portrait  painting  and  landscape  paint-  j 
ing,  glorified  by  the  beauty  of  truth,  still  command  the 
world's  admiration.     Wood-engraving  attained  the  highes 
distinction  through  the  brothers  Bewick.     Art  of  all  kinds 
foreign  as  well  as  native,  attracted  greater  public  attention 

The  war  with  France  and  Spain  (1779),  as  well  as  with 
Holland  (1780),  not  to  speak  of  conflict  at  the  same  time  with 
the  colonies  in  America,  naturally  made  the  British  people 
more  serious  and  tended  to  broaden  their  sympathies.  A 
sense  of  pity  for  men  and  wromen  of  another  race  led  to  a 
growing  murmur  against  the  African  slave  trade,  as  reflected 

262 


THE  ROMANTIC  PEEIOD  263 

for  instance,  in  several  of  Cowper's  poems  (1788).  A  sense 
of  pity  for  unfortunate  prisoners,  many  of  whom  were  debtors 
rather  than  criminals,  led  John  Howard  (1773)  to  call  the 
attention  of  Parliament  to  conditions  in  London  and  else- 
where. A  sense  of  pity  for  the  children  of  the  poor,  some  of 
whom  toiled  in  factories  without  restriction  of  the  hours  of 
labor,  induced  Robert  Raikes  (1780)  to  institute  Sunday 
schools,  where  in  many  cases  the  children  learned  to  read  and 
write,  and  were  helped  toward  greater  comfort  and  happiness. 
This  same  interest  in  the  children  appears  in  the  poetry  of 
Blake,  Wordsworth,  and  others.  A  keener  interest  in  animals 
is  also  a  sign  of  the  extension  of  sympathy.  With  color 
as  well  as  form  true  to  nature,  the  painter  Morland  depicted 
cattle  that  seem  to  be  alive,  and  Cowper  and  Burns  wrote 
poems  upon  themes  such  as  the  dying  spaniel  and  the  aged 
horse.  These  men  were  not  ashamed  to  show  that  feeling 
which  has  never  really  been  absent  from  the  human  heart. 

Title  of  the  Chapter.  — The  romantic  period,  as  this  chapter 
is  entitled,  is  so  called  because  most  of  the  eminent  writers  at 
this  time  appeal  less  to  reason  than  to  imagination.  Their 
work  is  suggestive  of  those  aspects  of  life  that  busy  people 
are  tempted  to  neglect.  They  believe  that  facts  in  them- 
selves have  little  or  no  value,  except  so  far  as  they  enhance 
the  beauty  and  the  dignity  and  the  striving  of  human  life. 

What  is  romantic  is  really  as  old  as  human  Imagination. 
Imagination  is  thej3owex  of  seeing  under  thejurface  of  things, 
the  power  of  detecting  the  beauty  that  is  hidden  in  what  looks 
lommonplace.  Imagination  is  the  mother  of  romance,  and 
neither  the  mother  nor  the  daughter  has  ever  been  far  distant, 
;ven  if  we  fail  to  behold  them. 

As  reason  dominates  the  classical  period,  so  imagination 
is  the  strongest  element  in  the  modern  romantic  period. 
So  far  as  the  writers  of  this  period  have  vision  or  a  sense  of 
the  ideal,  they  are  truly  romantic.  So  far  as  they  are  gro- 


264  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tesque  or  vague,  so  far  as  they  permit  emotion  to  cloud  rather 
than  to  strengthen  imagination,  they  are  neither  romantic 
nor  classical,  but  simply  inefficient. 

Why  was  there  a  Romantic  Period  ?  —  The  romantic 
period  appears  to  have  come  because  (1)  people  enjoy  a 
change,  (2)  political  upheavals  in  America  and  Europe 
aroused  a  spirit  of  unrest,  (3)  the  satire  of  the  previous 
period  could  no  longer  restrain  the  expression  of  natural 
feeling,  (4)  travelling  facilities  as  well  as  improvements  in 
agriculture  caused  a  stronger  interest  in  other  countries 
and  in  rural  life,  and  thus  quickened  the  imagination. 

During  the  first  fourteen  years  of  this  period  452  acts 
were  passed  in  England  for  repairing  the  public  highways. 
People  travelled  more  than  ever  throughout  the  British 
Isles  as  well  as  abroad,  and  this  helped  to  make  the  world 
look  bigger,  to  arouse  greater  curiosity  in  nature's  charms, 
to  call  more  attention  to  bygone  days,  and  to  give  better 
opportunity  for  the  distribution  of  good  books.  For  the 
first  time  circulating  libraries  were  established  in  the  larger 
towns,  and  thus  authors  had  to  appeal  to  a  new  circle  of 
readers. 

1.   POETS 

Percy's  Reliques.  —  Increasing  reverence  for  the  past  is 
seen  in  the  popularity  of  the  Reliques  of  Ancient  Poetry 
(1765),  published  by  Thomas  Percy  (1729-1811),  who  later 
became  Bishop  of  Dromore  in  Ireland.  The  volume  contains 
a  collection  of  176  English  and  Scots  popular  songs  and 
ballads,  only  45  of  which  are  in  the  old  folio  manuscript,  a 
document  which  Percy  declined  to  publish.  The  Reliques 
convinced  many  people  of  the  importance  of  saving  the  old 
folk-poetry  before  it  perished.  Later  Scott  collected  border 
ballads,  and  much  interest  in  folk-song  was  aroused,  especially 
among  the  Germans. 


THE  EOMANTIC  PERIOD 


WILLIAM  COWPER  (1731-1800) 


265 


His  Mother's  Picture. 
-  The  mother  first  saw 
her  son  at  Great  Berk- 
hamstead.  Her  hand  it 
was  that  tenderly  guided 
his  childhood.  More 
than  fifty  years  after  the 
day  on  which  the  child 
of  six  saw  a  dark  hearse 
bearing  his  mother's 
form  from  the  door,  an 
elderly  man  bent  over  a 
picture  and  gazed  with 
moist  eyes  upon  the 
image  of  one  whom  no 
true  man_can  forget.  In 
English  poetry  are  no 
lines  more  touching  than 
th  ose  On  the  Receipt  of  my 
Mother's  Picture  (1790) : 


After  the  engraving  by  Fillman 


FIG.  89.  —  William  Cowper. 


My  mother  !  when  I  learnt  that  thou  wast  dead, 

Say,  wast  thou  conscious  of  the  tears  I  shed  ? 

Hovered  thy  spirit  o'er  thy  sorrowing  son, 

Wretch  even  then,  life's  journey  just  begun? 

Perhaps  thou  gavest  me,  though  unf elt,  a  kiss : 

Perhaps  a  tear,  if  souls  can  weep  in  bliss  — 

Ah,  that  maternal  smile  !    It  answers  —  Yes. 

I  heard  the  bell  tolled  on  thy  burial  day, 

I  saw  the  hearse  that  bore  thee  slow  away, 

And  turning  from  my  nursery  window,  drew 

A  long  long  sigh,  and  wept  a  last  adieu  ! 

But  was  it  such  ?  —  It  was.  —  Where  thou  art  gone, 

Adieus  and  farewells  are  a  sound  unknown. 


0 


266  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  Shadow  of  his  Life. — At  a  boarding-school  the 
motherless  boy  was  nagged  and  beaten  by  an  older  lad, 
cruel  because  thoughtless.  At  eighteen  Cowper  entered 
an  attorney's  office.  Shy  and  timid,  the  lad  worried  over 
an  approaching  examination  and  became  insane.  After  a 
time  he  recovered,  but  he  was  at  times  haunted  by  the  fear 
that  his  soul  would  be  lost.  In  1760  he  resided  with  the 
Unwins,  a  most  sympathetic  family. 

Narrative  Poems.  —  Among  the  more  notable  of  Cowper's 
many  narrative  poems  are  ,J^oadicea^(  1780),  the  impressive 

story  of  a  warrior  queen  of 
ancient  Britain  ;  Alexander  Selkirk 
(1782),  dealing  with  the  Scottish 
seaman  who  is  the  hero  of  Robin- 
son Crusoe;  The  Loss  of  the  Royal 
George  (1782),  an  account  of  a  big 
man-of-war  that  went  down  with 

Fromaven-ant-tnKsWch         ^  her  crew  .      J^  g^  (1782), 

-a   merry   poem    relating  how    a 

worthy  London  citizen  on  horseback  celebrated  the  anni- 
versary of  his  wedding  day ;  and  The  Castaway  (1799),  telling 
in  vivid  lines  about  an  English  sailor  washed  overboard  and 
drowned  in  the  Atlantic. 

Other  Poems.  —  Cowper's  noted  Olney  Hymns  (1779)  is 
a  work  that  is  justly  admired.     His  translation,  in  blank 
verse,  of  Homer  (1791)  is  more  literal  than  Pope's,  but  it  is 
less  spirited.     Benjamin  Franklin  praised  Cowper's  moraU 
satires,  the  most  readable  of  which  is  Retirement  (1782). 

iTwas  TheJTask  (1785)  that  made  the  poet  a  celebrity.  | 
Its  title  is  due  to  the  fact  that  Lady  Austen  suggested  the  ; 
theme  of  the  first  of  its  six  books;  namely,  The  Sofa.     The 
purpose  of  the  poem  is  to  exalt  country  life  over  city  life, 
as  in  the  well-known  line  - 

God  made  the  country,  and  man  made  the  town.  —  Bk.  I,  749. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  267 

Other  familiar  lines  are  — 

Variety's  the  very  spice  of  life, 

That  gives  it  all  its  flavour.  —  Bk.  II,  606-607. 
And- 

Knowledge  is  proud  that  he  has  learned  so  much  ; 

Wisdom  is  humble  that  he  knows  no  more.  —  Bk.  VI,  96-97. 
And- 

I  would  not  enter  on  my  list  of  friends 

(Tho'  graced  with  polish 'd  manners  and  fine  sense, 

Yet  wanting  sensibility)  the  man 

Who  needlessly  sets  foot  upon  a  worm.  —  Bk.  VI,  560-563. 

Cowper's  Literary  Position.  —  The  author  of  the  Olney 
Hymns  ranks  among  the  best  of  English  letter-writers.  Iiis_ 

jiiite^pbsei^ation^  jjuLdeseciption^  of  nature,  ^is_poitraits 
of  even  the  humblest  persons,  his  sincerity  of  spirit,  stamp 

owper^MlTmosT worthy  forefumrer^f"Wor5sw2rth.  Like 
Addison  in  some  oFTiiiressays,  and  Thomson  in  his  poems, 
Cowper  had  romantic  leanings,  but  he  can  scarcely  be  termed 
a  romantic  poet. 

JAMES  MACPHERSON  (1736-1796) 

Ossian's  Address  to  the  Sun.  —  Ossian,  like  Milton,  is 
supposed  to  have  been  blind  in  his  old  age,  and  this  is  part 
of  his  Address  to  the  Sun,  taken  from  Carthon  : 

The  oaks  of  the  mountains  fall ;  the  mountains  themselves 
decay  with  years ;  the  moon  herself  is  lost  in  heaven,  but  thou 
art  for  ever  the  same,  rejoicing  in  the  brightness  of  thy  course. 
When  the  world  is  dark  with  tempests,  when  thunder  rolls  and 
lightning  flies,  thou  lookest  in  thy  beauty  from  the  clouds,  and 
laughest  at  the  storm.  But  to  Ossian  thou  lookest  in  vain,  for  he 
beholds  thy  beams  no  more ;  whether  thy  yellow  hair  flows  on 
the  eastern  clouds,  or  thou  tremblest  at  the  gates  of  the  west.  But 
thou  art  perhaps  like  me  for  a  season ;  thy  years  will  have  an 
end.  Thou  shalt  sleep  in  thy  clouds  careless  of  the  voice  of  the 
morning.  Exult  then,  0  sun,  in  the  strength  of  thy  youth  ! 


268  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  man  who  penned  this  passage  was  James  Macpherson, 
a  native  of  Kingussie  in  Scotland.  We  can  scarcely  ignore  a 
writer  whose  work  influenced  Byron  and  other  poets.  More 
than  once  he  was  praised  by  Gray  as  well  as  by  Matthew 
Arnold,  one  of  the  chief  critics  of  the  Victorian  period. 

The  Poems  of  Ossian.  —  Macpherson  asserted  that 
twenty-two  of  his  poems  were  translations  from  the  Gaelic 
language  employed  by  Ossian,  son  of  Fingal,  supposed  to 
be  a  bard  of  the  third  century  A.D.  Only  eleven  of  the 
twenty-two  poems  have  appeared  in  Gaelic. 

It  has  been  urged  that  Macpherson  wrote  original  composi- 
tions instead  of  translations,  but  it  is  evidently  impossible 
to  decide  a  question  of  this  sort  without  a  knowledge  of 
Gaelic.  Modern  Gaelic  scholars  agree  that  the  oldest  texts 
of  Ossianic  literature  in  Scotland  are  in  manuscripts  written 
from  the  fifteenth  to  the  seventeenth  century.  It  is  also 
maintained  that  some  of  the  Gaelic-speaking  people  of  Scot- 
land still  recite  Ossianic  ballads  and  prose  stories,  handed 
down  from  father  to  son  by  word  of  mouth. 

Macpherson's  Literary  Position.  —  No  writings  ever 
caused  a  greater  sensation  in  Europe,  and  none  perhaps 
contributed  more  to  the  development  of  the  romantic  move- 
ment in  Germany  and  the  surrounding  countries.  Schiller's 
earlier  dramas  fell  under  the  influence  of  Macpherson's 
work,  and  Schubert  set  portions  of  the  poems  to  music. 
The  nobility  of  sentiment,  the  melancholy  tenderness,  the 
bold  imagery  based  upon  an  appreciation  of  untamed  nature, 
are  often  impressive. 

Fragments  of  Ancient  Poetry  (1760),  Fingal  (1762),  and 
Temora  (1763)  may  not  be  translations,  but  neither  is 
Walpole's  Castle  of  Otranto,  even  if  its  author  declared  it 
was  a  translation  from  Italian.  Percy  added  some  of  his  own 
work  to  the  Reliques,  yet  neither  Walpole  nor  Percy  has 
been  denounced  as  an  impostor.  The  history  of  European 


THE  EOMANTIC  PERIOD 


269 


poetry  and  prose  fiction  affords  many  examples  of  a  similar 
character  even  as  late  as  the  nineteenth  century.  If  Mac- 
pherson  had  not  been  insulted  so  frequently,  he  might  have 
told  the  exact  facts,  but  his  pride  was  hurt,  and  he  kept 
silent. 

A  recent  critic  complains  that  the  language  is  always 
vague,  yet  Macpherson  writes  — 

She  came  in  all  her  beauty,  like  the  moon  from  the  cloud  of 
the  east.  Loveliness  was  around  her  as  light.  Her  steps  were 
like  the  music  of  songs.  She  saw  the  youth  and  loved  him. 


THOMAS  CHATTERTON  (1752-1770) 

The  story  of  literary  martyrdom  belongs  to  the  dim  back- 
ground of  the  world's  history. 
Many  a  seeker  for  fame  in  the 
sphere  of  letters  has  sacrificed 
health,  eyesight,  or  even  life  in 
attempting  to  serve  mankind. 
Milton  and  Scott  are  familiar 
instances,  but  what  a  company 
slumber  in  nameless  graves.  In 
the  whole  history  of  English  lit- 
erature there  is  perhaps  no  more 
pathetic  figure  than  Thomas 
Chatterton,  the  boy  whose  life 
was  crushed  by  neglect. 

The  Child's  Manuscripts.  - 
Under  the  shadow  of  the  old 
church  of  St.  Mary  Redcliffe 
at  Bristol,  Chatterton  passed 
his  childhood.  The  authorities  broke  open  the  chests  which 
contained  the  records  of  the  church,  and  old  parchments 
were  left  unlocked  as  though  they  were  rubbish.  Chatter- 


From  a  pen-and-ink  sketch 
FIG.    91.  —  Thomas  Chatterton. 


270  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ton's  father,  a  schoolmaster,  a  few  weeks  before  his  son  was 
born,  had  taken  some  of  the  manuscripts  to  his  home.  At 
the  age  of  six  Thomas  became  interested  in  the  old  illuminated 
manuscripts  and  began  to  read  at  an  age  when  some  children 
scarcely  know  the  letters  of  the  alphabet.  Four  years  later 
the  boy  with  the  brilliant  gray  eyes  was  writing  verses,  and 
by  the  time  he  was  eleven  he  had  in  fancy  a  number  of  good 
friends,  among  whom  was  Thomas  Rowley,  a  poetic  priest 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  With  infinite  patience  this  child 
was  already  writing  verses  in  the  name  and  style  of  his 
imaginary  friend  Rowley.  This  was  all  harmless  enough. 

Chatterton  in  London.  —  In  1768  the  lad  of  sixteen  tried  to 
secure  a  publisher  for  Rowley's  Ancient  Poems,  including 
JElla,  a  dramatic  interlude.  Next  year  he  sent  Walpole 
his  Rowley  or  Rowlie  poems,  but  the  poet  Gray  told  Walpole 
that  they  were  not  really  ancient.  This  fact  should  not  have 
made  the  slightest  difference,  since  Walpole  himself  four  years 
earlier  had  pretended  that  his  own  Castle  of  Otranto  was  a 
translation.  From  the  time  of  Greek  romance  in  the  third 
century  down  to  Defoe. and  Swift,  similar  harmless  pretences 
had  probably  imposed  upon  no  one,  even  though  they  were 
intended  to  lend  an  air  of  dignity  to  the  composition. 

At  all  events  Walpole  did  nothing  to  secure  a  position  for 
the  sensitive  boy,  who  had  explained  his  youth  and  his 
humble  circumstances.  He  paid  no  attention  to  several 
letters  from  Chatterton,  although  in  1769  he  finally  sent 
back  the  boy's  manuscripts.  The  man  of  fashion  dismissed 
the  whole  matter  from  his  mind  until  next  year  Goldsmith 
told  him  that  the  boy,  not  yet  eighteen,  had  committed 
suicide  one  night  in  August. 

Chatterton's  Literary  Position.  —  Although  despised 
mainly  because  he  was  so  young,  yet  the  genius  of  Chatterton 
may  in  a  measure  have  influenced  Keats  and  Rossetti,  two 
of  the  principal  romantic  poets  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  271 

If  we  take  into  account  his  youth,  Chatterton  displayed  no 
little  poetic  resourcefulness.  He  sometimes  produced  lyrics 
with  considerable  feeling.  To  some  extent  he  is  under  the 
influence  of  Pope,  yet  his  metres  are  more  varied  and  in- 
dependent. A  Hymn  for  Christmas  Day,  written  in  Chatter- 
ton's  eleventh  year,  has  seven  stanzas,  one  of  which  runs 
thus : 

How  shall  we  celebrate  the  day, 

When  God  appeared  in  mortal  clay, 
The  mark  of  worldly  scorn : 

When  the  archangel's  heavenly  lays 

Attempted  the  Redeemer's  praise, 
And  hailed  salvation's  morn  ! 

WILLIAM  BLAKE  (1757-1827) 

Among  those  who  were  to  some  extent  affected  by  the  work 
of  Chatterton  was  William  Blake,  strangest  of  all  English 
poets.  From  his  early  childhood  in  London  he  was  fond 
of  drawing.  He  became  an  engraver  by  day  and  a  poet  by 
night.  In  his  twenty-sixth  year  appeared  Poetical  Sketches. 
About  1800  Blake  began  to  be  so  absorbed  in  his  own  ideas 
that  he  came  to  believe  that  his  fancies  were  realities.  In 
other  words,  he  was  a  .mystic.  He  thought  that  he  could 
speak  to  such  men  as  Moses  and  Dante  and  Milton,  and  that 
some  of  these  spirits  sat  to  him  for  their  portraits.  In  1809 
he  exhibited  some  of  his  pictures,  but  most  people  did  not 
understand  him  or  his  work. 

His  Works.  —  Blake's  reputation  in  the  world  of  letters 
rests  almost  entirely  on  Songs  of_Innocence  (1789)  and  on 
Songs  of  Experience  (1794).  As  the  titles  indicate,  the  former 
is  the  simpler.  It  was  published  along  with  Blake's  own  illus- 
trations in  harmonious  color.  There  are  twenty  short  lyrics 
in  the  volume.  The  few  lines  on  the  Little  Lamb  have  some 
dramatic  suggestiveness. 


272 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


In  Songs  of  Experience  Blake  is  sometimes  so  plain  that 
a  child  may  understand;  at  other  times  he  has  puzzled 
readers,  as  Shakespeare  did  in  The  Phcenix  and  the  Turtle. 
In  this  collection  The  Tiger  is  the  most  familiar.  Some 
of  the  poems  on  children  and  animals  have  been  admired. 
Blake's  work  is  very  unequal,  sometimes  obscure,  and  nearly 
always  quaint. 

ROBERT  BURNS  (1759-1796) 

But  human  bodies  are  sic  fools, 
For  a'  their  colleges  and  schools, 
That  when  nae  real  ills  perplex  them, 
They  make  enow  themselves  to  vex  them. 


These  lines  from  The  Twa  Dogs 
were  written  by  a  poet  called 
Burns.  Recently  a  new  fact  was 
discovered  by  a  student.  "  On 
the  25th  of  January  1759,  Robert 
Burns  was  born  in  a  cottage  of 
stone,  which  he  helped  his  father 
to  face  with  clay  instead  of 
mortar/'  If  we  omit  the  allu- 
sion to  Robert's  aid,  the  state- 
ment is  accurate.  The  cottage 
was  in  Alloway  parish,  two  miles 
south  of  the  seaport  of  Ayr. 
The  father  was  the  type  of  man 
depicted  in  The  Cotter's  Saturday 
Night  (1786).  The  mother's 
FIG.  92.  — Robert  Burns.  name  was  Agnes  Brown,  her 

mother    being    a    Davidson    of 

Clan  Chattan  in  the  North.      It  was  from  his  father  that 
Robert  derived  his  black  curly  hair  and  powerful  intellect, 


From  the  painting  by  Nasmyth,  National 
Portrait  Gallery 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 


273 


and  from  his  mother  he  inherited  his  fine  dark  eyes  and  his 
taste  for  poetry. 

From  the  age  of  six  the  boy  attended  various  schools  at 
intervals.  Much  of  his  education,  however,  came  from  his 
parents.  Before  Robert  was  sixteen,  he  had  written  his 
first  verses.  In  1783,  the  year  before  his  father's  death,  the 
young  poet  and  his  brother  Gilbert  leased  the  farm  of  MOSS- 


FIG.  93.  —  Birthplace  of  Burns. 

giel.     Soon  afterward  Robert  met  Jean  Armour,  whom  he 
later  married. 

In  1786  Burns  resolved  to  emigrate  to  America,  and 
published  some  of  his  poems  at  Kilmarnock  in  order  to  pay 
for  the  voyage.  The  poems  were  very  successful,  and  Dr. 
Blacklock,  himself  a  writer  of  verse,  encouraged  Burns  to 
come  to  Edinburgh.  On  the  back  of  a  pony  he  rode  eastward 
to  the  city,  where  he  was  welcomed  by  people  of  all  classes. 
Soon  the  second  edition  of  his  poems  brought  him  about 
twenty-five  hundred  dollars,  nearly  half  of  which  he  gave 


274  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

to  help  his  mother  and  the  rest  of  the  family.  By  this  time 
the  poet  was  content  to  stay  in  his  native  land. 

In  1788  Burns  brought  his  wife  to  Ellisland  in  the  county 
of  Dumfries,  and  he  employed  four  servants  to  help  on  the 
farm.  Still  retaining  the  farm,  the  poet  became  an  officer  of 
excise  or  district  inspector  of  goods  liable  to  a  tax.  From 
1791  until  his  death,  five  years  later,  his  home  was  in  the 
town  of  Dumfries,  where  he  now  rests  in  St.  Michael's  church- 
yard. 

The  Poems.  —  There  was  no  classical  period  for  Tarn  o' 
Shanter  (Tarn  of  the  Shanter  farm)  and  other  farmers  of 
Ayrshire  or  anywhere  else.  Burns  had  observed  nature  more 
keenly  than  most  poets,  because  for  years  he  made  his  living 
behind  the  plough.  The  horses  and  sheep  and  cattle  were 
less  his  property  than  they  were  his  friends.  It  was  from 
the  heart  that  he  wrote  poems  about  his  Auld  Mare  or  Poor 
Mailie  (a  name  he  gave  to  a  pet  sheep). 

One  reason  why  Burns  is  so  well  known  in  America  and 
other  countries  is  that  his  characters  belong  to  all  classes  of 
society,  as  may  be  seen  in  poems  ranging  from  The  Jolly 
Beggars  (1785)  to  The  Earl  of  Glencairn  (1791),  with  its 
pathetic  lines : 

The  bridegroom  may  forget  the  bride, 

Was  made  his  wedded  wife  yestreen ; 
The  monarch  may  forget  the  crown 

That  on  his  head  an  hour  has  been  * 
The  mother  may  forget  the  child 

That  smiles  sae  sweetly  on  her  knee ; 
But  I'll  remember  thee  Glencairn, 

And  a'  that  thou  hast  done  for  me  ! 

Shakespeare  was  an  Englishman  and  Burns  a  Scotsman, 
but  we  care  little  about  the  land  of  their  birth,  because  each 
makes  a  universal  appeal  to  men  and  women  as  human 
beings. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  275 

Burns  had  a  profound  regard  for  true  religion,  yet  he  had 
little  patience  with  what  he  conceived  to  be  hypocrisy  or 
intolerance.  In  A  Winter  Night  he  confesses : 

But  deep  this  truth  impressed  my  mind 

Through  all  His  works  abroad, 
The  heart  benevolent  and  kind 

The  most  resembles  God. 

The  Songs.  —  No  poet  ever  wrote  so  many  songs  that  have 
been  sung  for  generations.  Many  an  ancient  melody  did 
he  preserve  by  wedding  the  music  to  his  own  impassioned 
diction.  Often  he  played  the  melody  on  his  violin,  as  he 
composed  the  words  to  fit  the  tune.  In  the  songs  of  Burns 
the  bitter-sweet  pains  of  love  are  poured  in  a  torrent  which, 
for  lyric  vigor  and  variety,  is  perhaps  unequalled.  He  de- 
scribes the  shy  admiration  of  Mary  Morison,  the  playfulness 
of  Comin'  through  the  Rye,  the  irony  of  Let  not  Woman  e'er 
Complain,  the- pastoral  charm  of  Afton  Water,  the  pathos  of 
Highland  Mary,  the  tragic  note  of  Bonnie  Doon,  and  the 
spirituality  of  Mary  in  Heaven.  What  simple  sincere 
chivalry  breathes  from  0  Wert  Thou  in  the  Cauld  Blast  : 

Or  were  I  in  the  wildest  waste, 

Sae  black  and  bare,  sae  black  and  bare, 
The  desert  were  a  paradise, 

If  thou  wert  there,  if  thou  wert  there. 
Or  were  I  monarch  o'  the  globe, 

Wi'  thee  to  reign,  wi'  thee  to  reign, 
The  brightest  jewel  in  my  crown 

Wad  be  my  queen,  wad  be  my  queen. 

Burns  reveals  love  in  all  its  phases.  What  tenderness 
underlies  that  song  of  wedded  love,  John  Anderson,  my  Jo 
(sweetheart) !  His  lyric  genius,  however,  had  other  aspects. 
Witness  the  self-respect  of  A  Man's  a  Man,  the  birthday  song 
Rantin  Robin,  the  humorous  Duncan  Gray,  the  patriotism  of 


276 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Scots  Who,  Hae,  the  romantic  daring  of  Macpherson's  Fare- 
well,  and  the  parting  chorus  of  friendship,  Auld  Lang  Syne. 
The  Soul  of  Genius.  —  With  perfect  frankness  Burns 
explained,  so  far  as  he  was  able,  under  what  circumstances 
many  of  his  poems  and  songs  came  into  existence.  Of  course, 
no  man  of  genius  can  set  down  in  detail  the  influences  that 

guide  him  in  his  work.  He  does 
not  know  them  himself,  for  his 
soul  is  vibrating  to  a  myriad 
delicate  harmonies,  unconscious 
and  therefore  unuttered.  The 
time  comes,  however,  when  some 
sudden  emotion,  some  strong 
wave  of  sentiment,  sweeps  over 
him,  and  then  ideas  that  were 
working  without  his  knowledge 
take  definite  shape.  The  imagi- 
nation is  kindled,  the  brain  throbs 
with  the  passion  of  creativeness, 
the  words  come  quickly  and  in 
melodious  fitness  to  clothe  the 
thought,  and  a  true  poem  is  be- 
gotten. 

The  Romance  of  Highland 
Mary.  —  From  the  same  impulse  sprang  three  beautiful 
songs,  the  earliest  of  which  is  To  Mary  (1786),  written  in 
the  very  year  that  Burns  intended  to  go  abroad. 

0  sweet  grows  the  lime  and  the  orange 

And  the  apple  on  the  pine ; 
But  a'  the  charms  o'  the  Indies 

Can  never  equal  thine. 

Mary  Campbell  (in  Scotland  the  b  is  not  silent)  was  about 
to  return  to  her  West  Highland  home  for  a  while,  and  the 


From  a  photograph 

FIG.  94.  —  Highland  Mary's 
Grave. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 


277 


lovers  agreed  to  meet  on  the  second  Sunday  of  May  on  the 
banks  of  the  river  Ayr.  Burns  gave  Mary  a  Bible  as  a 
keepsake,  and  they  said 
good-by  for  the  last  time. 
Five  months  later  she 
died  at  the  port  of 
Greenock  on  the  river 
Clyde,  a  town  that  gave 
birth  to  the  alleged  pirate 
Captain  Kidd  as  well  as 
to  James  Watt,  whose 
name  will  always  be 
linked  with  the  steam- 
engine.  Mary  sleeps  in 
the  West  Kirkyard,  an 
upright  slab  at  the  head 
of  the  mound. 

For  several  days  the 
girl  had  been  in  her  grave 
before  Burns  learned 
that  she  had  been  ill. 
The  shock  of  her  sudden 

death  cut  him  most  keenly,  and  his  two  other  songs  have 
given  Highland  Mary  a  sacred  place  beside  Dante's  Beatrice 
and  Petrarch's  Laura.  Three  years  later,  on  the  anniversary 
of  her  death,  the  poet  composed  To  Mary  in  Heaven  (1789), 
in  whose  opening  stanza  is  revealed  a  rare  idealism  or  spiritu- 

^ "  Thou  ling'ring  star,  with  less'ning  ray, 

That  lov'st  to  greet  the  early  morn, 
Again  thou  usher'st  in  the  day 

My  Mary  from  my  soul  was  torn. 
O  Mary  !  dear  departed  shade  ! 

Where  is  thy  place  of  blissful  rest  ? 
See'st  thou  thy  lover  lowly  laid  ? 

Hear'st  thou  the  groans  that  rend  his  breast  ? 


FIG.  95.  —  Highland  Mary. 


278  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Again,  three  years  later  —  notice  the  sacred  number ;  three 
songs  at  intervals  of  three  years  —  Burns  composed  High- 
land Mary,  whose  passionate  word-music,  sung  to  an  ancient 
Gaelic  melody,  has  more  than  once  brought  tears  to  the 
eyes  of  strong  men.  This  is  one  of  its  four  stanzas : 

0  pale,  pale  now,  those  rosy  lips, 

I  aft  hae  kiss'd  sae  fondly  ! 
And  closed  for  aye  the  sparkling  glance 

That  dwelt  on  me  sae  kindly  ! 
And  moukTring  now  in  silent  dust, 

That  heart  that  lo'ed  me  dearly  ! 
But  still  within  my  bosom's  core 

Shall  live  my  Highland  Mary. 

Burns's  Literary  Position. — Burns  was  the  greatest  realis- 
tic poet  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  that  is  to  say,  he  depicts 
the  real  life  of  his  own  time,  tinged  with  romance.  He  repre- 
sents the  daring  open-handed  Scotsman.  In  the  young  farmer 
of  Ayrshire  the  lyric  genius  of  his  countrymen  found  its  fullest 
and  strongest,  its  sweetest  and  tenderest,  expression.  Lov- 
ingly he  fingered  the  Book  of  Nature,  entranced  he  pored  over 
the  Book  of  Romance,  but  in  the  Book  of  Life  —  of  human 
passion  —  he  wrote  with  his  own  heart's  blood.  This  is  why 
his  words  are  on  the  lips  of  the  world,  when  writers  with  much 
greater  opportunities  are  neglected  and  forgotten. 

WILLIAM  WORDSWORTH  (1770-1850) 

Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  and  Southey  are  often  termed 
the  Lake  Poets,  because  these  friends  lived  chiefly  near  the 
beautiful  lakes  of  Cumberland  in  northwestern  England. 
Northern  English  scenery  is  at  its  best  in  late  spring  and  in 
early  autumn.  The  woods  are  sprouting  into  green  or  the 
green  is  melting  into  russet  and  gold,  and  we  see  lakeland  at 
its  loveliest.  It  will  welcome  us  cordially,  and  may  suggest 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 


279 


After  Lupton's  engraving  of  Hayden's 
portrait 


that  sense  of  joy  which  awoke  more  than  a  century  ago  in  the 

heart  of  William  Wordsworth. 
In  1770  WTordsworth  was  born 

at    Cockermouth,    Cumberland. 

In     his     seventeenth     year     he 

entered  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  three  years  later  he 

visited  France  and  Switzerland. 

On  a  second  visit  to  France  in 

179  t~"Ti£_expr  essed     sympathy 

with  the  French  revolutionists. 

Like    Burke,    he    changed    his 

views  when  the  queen  and  others 

\vere  beheaded. 

Wordsworth  resembled  Milton 

and   Tennyson  in  at  least  one 

respect.       He     considered     the 

composition  of  poetry  to  be  his 

chief    business,    and    by     good 

fortune  he  was  never  obliged  to  toil  hard  for  daily  bread. 

He  was  in  his  twenty-third  year  when  he  published  An 

Evening  Walk  and  De- 
scriptive Sketches,  both 
in  heroic^couplets.  In 
1798  came  the  Lyrical 
Ballads,  which  included 
The  Ancient  Mariner  of 
his  friend  Coleridge.  It 
was  in  Germany  (1798- 
1799)  that  he  wrote  Lucy 

FIG.  97.-Gra^me^Lake  from  Dove         Qfay  an(j  Qne  Qr  twQ   lesg 

familiar  poems. 

On  returning  to  England  Wordsworth  settled    with  his 
sister  Dorothy  at  Dove  Cottage,  Grasmere,  among  the  hills 


FIG.  96.  —  William  Wordsworth. 


280 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


of  his  childhood.  There  in  1802  he  married  Mary  Hutchin- 
son,  and  six  years  later  they  removed  to  Allen  Bank.  Finally 
in  1813  he  went  to  Rydal  Mount,  which  is  within  view  of 
Lake  Windermere,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Cumberland 

.    Mountains.     He  became 

poet  laureate  in  1843,  a 
position  which  he  held 
until  he  died  in  his 
eightieth  year,  when 
Tennyson  became  his 
successor.  Wordsworth 
Grasmere  by 


FIG.  98.  —  Rydal  Mount. 


sleeps    at 

the  side  of  his  daughter 
Dora. 

His  Theory  of  Poetry.  —  From  the  preface  to  the  Lyrical 
Ballads  it  is  evident  that  Coleridgejwas  to  deaj_with  th  emes__ 
of  legend  and  romance  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  them  look 
real,    whereas    Wordsworth    was    to    treat    incidents 


common  life  with  such  imaginative  power  as  to  give  them  the 
charm  of  romance.  Wordsworth's  idea,  suggested  apparently 
by  the  success  of  Burns,  was  that  great  poetry  can  be  written 
about  simple  subjects  in  a  simple  manner,  but  he  carried  his 
theory  so  far  that  sometimes  his  verse  is  uninspired.  One 
of  his  most  brilliant  successes  in  making^  a  simple  theme 
truly  romantic  is  The  Solitary  Reaper  (1803).  The  opening 
stanza  runs  thus  : 


Behold  her,  single  in  the  field, 
Yon  solitary  Highland  Lass  ! 
Reaping  and  singing  by  herself ; 
Stop  here,  or  gently  pass  ! 
Alone  she  cuts  and  binds  the  grain, 
And  sings  a  melancholy  strain ; 
0  listen  !  for  the  Vale  profound 
Is  overflowing  with  the  sound. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  281 

No  nightingale  did  ever  chaunt 
More  welcome  notes  to  weary  bands 
Of  travellers  in  some  shady  haunt, 
Among  Arabian  sands : 
A  voice  so  thrilling  ne'er  was  heard 
In  spring-time  from  the  Cuckoo-bird, 
Breaking  the  silence  of  the  seas 
Among  the  farthest  Hebrides. 

His  Theory  of  Nature.  —  Wordsworth  had  the  idea  that 
Nature  is  alive,  although  she  seems  dead  to  those  who  have 
neither  the  eyes  to  see  nor  the  ears  to  hear.  Nature  he 
loves,  from  the  mighty  mountain  to  the  puny  primrose. 
This  love  unites  him  with  Nature,  so  that  he  responds  to 
all  her  moods  and  her  messages,  and  in  various  ways  these 
messages  lead  to  Him  who  is  divine.  For  instance,  The 
Prelude  (1850),  a  long  poem  in  blank  verse,  was  intended  to 
introduce  a  longer  unfinished  poem  termed  The  Recluse,  of 
which  the  second  part  is  the  didactic  poem  known  as  The 
Excursion  (1814).  The  theme  of  the  last-named  poem  is  — 
How  can  a  person  who  is  downcast  regain  trust  in  God  as 
well  as  in  man  ?  Part  of  the  answer  is  — 

The  smoke  ascends 

To  Heaven  as  lightly  from  the  cottage-hearth 
As  from  the  haughtiest  palace.     He,  whose  soul 
Ponders  this  true  equality,  may  walk 
The  fields  of  earth  with  gratitude  and  hope.  —  Bk.  IX,  245-249. 

Poems  of  Childhood.  —  Emerson,  the  great  American 
thinker,  praised  Wordsworth's  Ode  to  Dion.  Of  the  tragic 
fate  of  an  ancient  Greek  it  treats  in  choicest  language,  yet 
it  is  scarcely  known  as  compared  with  the  ode  On  the  Intima- 
tions of  Immortality  (1807),  one  of  many  fine  poems  concern- 
ing the  charm  and  mystery  of  childhood.  All  of  us  have 
followed  the  parents  of  Lucy  Gray  (1800)  - 

Then  downwards  from  the  steep  hill's  edge 
They  tracked  the  footsteps  small. 


282 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


In  earlier  years  we  have  read  We  are  Seven  and  She  Dwelt 
among  the  Untrodden  Ways  (1803).  We  have  watched 
The  Pet  Lamb  (1800),  when  - 

The  dew  was  falling  fast,  the  stars  began  to  blink. 

Wordsworth's  Literary  Position.  —  As  a  writerLoLsonuets 
Wordsworth  may  be  compared  with  Milton.  He  is  a  master 
of  blank  verse^  and  is  one  of  the  most  thoughtful  of  all  the 
poets.  If  he  has  written  too  much,  he  is  not  alone  in  this 
respect,  nor  is  he  alone  in  his  lac^of_eitlier_wit_or  humor. 
Some  of  his  best  work  is  distinctly  romantic  in  character. 
In  his  manner  of  expressing  reverence  for  nature  as  well  as 
human  nature,  he  is  more  like  Cowper  than  Burns.  Words- 
worth's aim  was  to  teach  us  to  be  wise ;  he  has  done  so  —  in 
teaching  us  to  be  happy. 


FIG.  99.  —  Samuel  Taylor 
"  Coleridge. 


SAMUEL  TAYLOR  COLERIDGE 

(1772-1834) 

Wordsworth  was  a  prattling 
two-year-old  infant  when  Samuel 
Taylor  Coleridge  was  born  at 
Ottery  St.  Mary  in  Devonshire. 
Like  most  children  he  enjoyed 
fairy  tales,  and  was  taught  by  his 
father  on  clear  evenings  to  watch 
the  chief  stars.  At  Christ's  Hos- 
pital school  in  London  he  began 
his  friendship  with  Charles  Lamb, 
the  essayist.  In  his  nineteenth 
year  Coleridge  went  to  Cam> 
bridge,  and  then  enlisted  in  the 
15th  Light  Dragoons.  In  about 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  283 

four  months  some  of  his  friends  found  him  and  secured  his 
discharge. 

Longing  for  America.  —  On  account  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion (1789-1793)  the  ideas  of  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity 
were  everywhere.  With  his  friend  Southey,  wThom  he  met 
in  1794,  Coleridge  was  working  out  a  dream  by  no  means  new 
in  the  world's  history.  These  young  gentlemen  proposed 
to  sail  across  the  Atlantic  to  the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  there  they  were  to  establish  a  Panti- 
socracy,  that  is,  a  colony  in  which  all  are  equal.  The  pro- 
ceeds of  their  labor  were  to  go  into  a  common  treasury,  a 
system  which  is  usually  called  communism.  Their  leisure 
hours  were  to  be  devoted  to  literature.  Without  money, 
however,  they  could  not  visit  America. 

The  Ancient  Mariner.  —  In  1795  Coleridge  married  Sarah 
Fricker  at  Bristol,  and  Southey  married  her  sister.  Next 
year  the  Coleridges  went  to  a  cottage  at  Stowey  in  Somerset- 
shire, their  residence  for  about  three  years.  These  were  the 
happiest  years  of  the  poet's  life,  and  part  of  its  outcome  was 
that  romantic  masterpiece  The  Ancient  Maririer  (1789),  pub- 
lished along  with  the  Lyrical  Ballads  of  Wordsworth,  whom 
he  had  met  the  year  before.  Coleridge's  familiar  poem  is 
mainly  in  the  quaint  style  and  metre  of  the  old  popular 
ballads.  For  instance* — - 

He  went  like  one  that  hath  been  stunned, 
And  is  of  sense  forlorn ; 
A  sadder  and  a  wiser  man, 
He  rose  the  morrow  morn. 

The  tale  is  supposed  to  be  told  to^a^pe^bound.  wedding 
guest  by  an  old  sailor,  who  possesses  a  gray  beard,  glittering 
eyes,  and  long  brown  skinny  hands.  His  ship  is  driven  by 
storms  southward  into  the  Antarctic  seas,  where  it  is  frozen 
fast.  One  day  there  comes  an  albatross,  a  bird  supposed  by 


284 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


sailors  to  bring  good  luck,  the  ice  breaks,  and  the  bird  follows 
the  vessel.  The  sailor  thoughtlessly  shoots  the  albatross, 
and  the  vessel  sails  northward  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  where 
it  becomes  becalmed  in  the  sweltering  tropics.  A  phantom 

ship  draws  near, 
showing  Death  and ' 
a  Woman  (Life-in- 
Death)  gambling 
with  dice  for  the 
souls  of  the  sailor 
and  his  comrades. 
The  Woman  secures 
the  Ancient  Mariner ; 
all  the  rest  are  seized 
by  Death.  After 
seven  days  and  seven 
nights  the  sight  of 
water-snakes  fills  his 
heart  with  love  for 
God's  creatures  once 
more.  Angel  spirits 
trim  the  sails.  Al- 
though there  is  no 
wind,  the  ship  sails 
on  till  the  mariner's 
native  land  appears. 
A  pilot  comes  from 

the  shore,  but  before  he  reaches  the  ship,  it  sinks  and  the 
sailor  is  saved  by  the  pilot.  Now  the  sailor  is  so  un- 
nerved, by  what  he  has  suffered  on  account  of  his  cruelty 
to  the  albatross,  that  he  goes  from  one  land  to  another, 
and  feels  bound  to  confess  his  wrong. 

The  poem  shows  that  (1)  cruelty  is  punished,  and  (2)  we 
ought  to  love  all  God's  creatures. 


FIG.  100.  —  "  I  shot  the  Albatross." 


THE  EOMANT1C  PERIOD  285 

Other  Poems.  —  Among  the  more  notable  of  Coleridge's 
other  poems  are  Kubla  Khan  (1797),  an  unfinished  Oriental 
poem  suggested  to  him  by  a  dream ;  Christabel  (1797-1800), 
another  supernatural  fragment;  and  Dejection  (1822-1832), 
an  ode  wherein  he  expresses  disbelief  in  Wordsworth's 
theory  of  nature.  The  well-known  Hymn  before  Sunrise 
is  based  upon  the  work  of  a  German  poetess,  who  seems 
to  have  been  influenced  by  Macpherson's  Ossianic  poems. 

Motionless  torrents  !  silent  cataracts  ! 

Who  made  you  glorious  as  the  Gates  of  Heaven 

Beneath  the  keen  full  moon  ? 

German  Influence.  —  Even  as  far  back  as  the  Shake- 
spearean period  Germany  had  exerted  a  certain  influence  upon 
English  literature.  The  genius  of  Germany  includes  a  capac- 
ity for  noble  sentiment  and  profound  thought,  and  this 
genius  began  to  affect  the  whole  of  western  Europe  from 
the  time  of  Lessing  onward.  Long  before  Coleridge  died  in 
his  sixty-second  year  he  came  under  this  helpful  influence. 

1.  In  1798  he  visited  Germany  and  studied  its  literature 
and  philosophy.     After  his  return  to  England  in  1800   he 
produced  a  spirited  translation  of  Schiller's  drama  Wallen- 
stein. 

2.  In  his  "  Gothic  "  tragedy  Osorio  or   Remorse  (acted, 
1813)  Coleridge  borrowed  to  some  extent  from  Schiller. 

3.  By   his   Lectures   on  Shakespeare    (1808,    1812,    1818) 
Coleridge    enriched    literary    criticism.     He    states    in    the 
literary  essays  called  Biographia  Liter  aria  (1817)  that  both 
England  and  Germany  are  indebted  to  Lessing  for  helping 
them  to  a  better  appreciation  of  Shakespeare. 

4.  In  Aids  to  Reflection  (1825)  Coleridge  shows  that  he 
owes  much  to  Kant  and  other  German  thinkers. 

Coleridge's  Literary  Position.  —  Good  as  is  his  prose,  it 
is  mainly  as  a  romantic  poet  that  Coleridge  holds  his  place 


286 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


in  English  literature.  At  its  best  his  poetry  has 
of  imagination  unknown  in  Britain  since  Milton.  In  the 
quality  of  his  imaginative  power  he  most  resembles  Spenser  - 
dreamy,  melodious,  subtle  in  thought.  As  a  poet  of  the 
supernatural,  Coleridge  has  a  kinship  with  Blake.  Apart 
from  a  certain  melancholy  tenderness  there  is  scarcely 
enough  human  passion  in  his  work  to  make  him,  like  Burns, 
a  poet  of  the  people.  On  the  other  hand,  rarely  has  there 
existed  an  imagination  combining  so  much  originality  and 
daring  with  so  delicate  a  sense  of  beauty. 


ROBERT  SOUTHEY  (1774-1843) 

Like   Chatterton,  Robert  Southey  was  born  in  Bristol. 
After  attending  Westminster  school  he  entered  Oxford  in 

1792,  where  he  met  Coleridge. 
Twelve  years  later  he  went  to 
reside  at  Keswick  in  the  Lake 
district.  Coleridge  was  already 
there,  and  Wordsworth  was  at 
Rydal  Mount,  fourteen  miles 
distant.  Southey  wrote  many 
works  in  verse  and  in  prose,  and 
was  much  more  energetic  than 
either  Wordsworth  or  Coleridge. 
Necessity  compelled  him  to  toil 
to  support  his  own  family,  and 
generosity  impelled  him  to  assist 
the  family  of  his  friend  Coleridge. 
In  1813  when  Scott  declined  the  honor,  Southey  became 
poet  laureate.  Death  came  in  1843,  his  later  years,  like 
those  of  Swift,  being  clouded  by  mental  trouble. 

As  a  Poet.  —  Southey  wrote  narrative  poems  as  well  as 
lyrics.     Joan  of  Arc  (1790)~Hto5ws^sympathy  with  the  re- 


FIG.  101.  — Robert  Southey. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  287 

publican  ideas  of  France.  Thalaba  (1801)  depicts  the  perils 
and  ultimate  success  of  an  Arabian  hero.  Madoc  (1805) 
treats  of  a  legendary  Welsh  prince  who  discovered  America. 
The  Curse  of  Kehama  (1810)  tells  of  the  troubles  of  a  young 
Hindu,  cursed  or  bound  with  an  evil  spell  by  his  own  father. 
Don  Roderick  (1814),  the  last  of  Southey's  romantic  epics, 
narrates  the  loss  of  the  hero's  throne. 

Some  of  the  shorter  compositions  are  among  the  best- 
known  poems  in  the  language.  Nearly  all  young  people  have 
read  and  enjoyed  The  Battle  of  Blenheim  (1798)  and  The 
Inchcape  Rock.  The  latter  of  these,  in  ballad  style,  de- 
scribes how  a  pirate  met  his  fate  on  a  sunken  reef  in  the 
North  Sea.  To-day  the  reef  is  guarded  by  the  Bell  Rock 
Lighthouse. 

As  a  Prose  Writer.  —  Southey's  Life  of  Nelson  is  his 
prose  masterpiece,  a  biography  worthy  to  rank  with  Scott's 
Dryden  and  Swift,  Lockhart's  Scott,  and  Carlyle's  Cromwell. 
It  is  clear,  polished,  and  sympathetic.  His  History  of 
Brazil  and  other  works  are  not  nearly  so  well  known  as  the 
Nelson,  and  yet  Southey's  best  prose  is  not  without  dis- 
tinction. 

THOMAS  CAMPBELL  (1777-1844) 

Thomas  Campbell  was  a  native  of  Glasgow.  At  the  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow  he  distinguished  himself  by  his  verse 
translations  from  the  Greek  poets.  The  first  work  that 
brought  him  public  attention  was  Pleasures  of  Hope  (1799), 
which  contains  the  familiar  line  - 

Tis  distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view. 

Three  years  later  appeared  Ye  Mariners  of  England, 
perhaps  the  most  stirring  of  all  English  naval  songs.  At 
the  same  time  came  LochieVs  Warning.  It  tells  how  in 
1745  Cameron  of  Lochiel,  grandfather  of  the  Lochiel  men- 


288  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tioned  in  the  third  canto  of  Byron's  Childe  Harold,  was 
warned  that  "  Coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before." 
Many  of  these  poems  are  forceful,  terse,  and  touched  with 
sincere  feeling. 

In  1809  Campbell  published  Gertrude  of  Wyoming,  whose 
closing  picture  of  the  death  of  the  heroine  is  ennobled  by 


FIG.  102.  —  Loch  Gyle.     Scene  of  Lord  Ullin's  Daughter. 

true  pathos.  In  the  same  volume  were  other  poems.  Written 
in  ballad  style  is  Lord  Ullin's  Daughter,  telling  of  the  lady's 
tragic  elopement  with  the  chief  of  Ulva.  No  less  vigor 
runs  through  The  Battle  of  the  Baltic,  whose  war  notes  sink 
into  repose  - 

While  the  billow  mournful  rolls, 

And  the  mermaid's  song  condoles, 

Singing  glory  to  the  souls 

Of  the  brave. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  poems  is  The  Last  Man,  in 
which  we  see  a  man  ages  hence,  when  the  sun  is  growing 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 


289 


dim.  Alone,  gazing  out  upon  the  hummocks  of  ice  and  the 
wastes  of  snow,  he  is  an  inspiring  figure,  manly  and  resolute. 
Campbell  died  at  Boulogne, 
France,  in  1844,  and  was  interred 
in  Westminster  Abbey. 

THOMAS  MOORE  (1779-1852) 

Most  people  regard  Thomas 
Moore  as  the  representative  poet 
of  Ireland,  but  the  Irish  them- 
selves are  inclined  to  prefer  James 
Clarence  Mangan  (1803-1849), 
the  brilliant  author  of  Dark 
Rosaleen  and  many  other  im- 
passioned poems.  Moore,  whose 
birthplace  was  Dublin,  seems  to 
have  inherited  his  talent  from 
his  mother.  After  studying  at 
Trinity  College,  Dublin,  he  went  to  London. 

Among  Moore's  Irish  friends  was  Robert  Emmett,  who 
became  involved  in  a  national  revolt  in  1803.  It  was  in 
Emmett's  honor  that  Moore  wrote  these  touching  lines : 

Oh,  breathe  not  his  name  !  let  it  sleep  in  the  shade, 
Where  cold  and  unhonoured  his  relics  are  laid ; 
Sad,  silent,  and  dark  be  the  tears  that  we  shed, 
As  the  night-dew  that  falls  on  the  grass  o'er  his  head. 

But  the  night-dew  that  falls,  though  in  silence  it  weeps, 
Shall  brighten  with  verdure  the  grave  where  he  sleeps ; 
And  the  tear  that  we  shed,  though  in  secret  it  rolls, 
Shall  long  keep  his  memory  green  in  our  souls. 

Moore's  fame  rests  principally  on  his  Irish  Melodies 
(1807  and  later),  mainly  a  collection  of  songs  of  love  and 


After  portrait  by  Sir  M.  A.  Shee 
FIG.   103.  —  Thomas  Moore. 


290  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

patriotism,  some  of  which  are  wedded  to  old  Irish  airs. 
Among  the  songs  most  familiar  are  Tarn's  Halls,  The  Meeting 
of  the  Waters,  and  The  Last  Rose  of  Summer.  Wealth  of 
fancy  and  gracefulness  of  sentiment  distinguish  the  best  of 
the  lyrics. 

In  1817  appeared  Lalla  Rookh,  a  series  of  Oriental  stories 
in  verse.  These  romances  possess  the  vivacity  of  their 
author,  and  they  proved  almost  as  popular  as  Byron's 
Turkish  tales  in  verse.  Moore's  greatest  success  in  prose 
was  achieved  by  editing  the  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Byron 
(1830).  The  poet's  wit  and  pleasing  manners  as  well  as  his 
undoubted  talent  won  for  him  many  friends. 

GEORGE  NOEL  GORDON,  LORD  BYRON  (1788-1824) 

Toward  the  close  of  the  fourth  canto  of  Childe  Harold's 
Pilgrimage  are  these  lines  : 

Roll  on,  thou  deep  and  dark  blue  Ocean  —  roll ! 

Ten  thousand  fleets  sweep  over  thee  in  vain; 

Man  marks  the  earth  with  ruin  —  his  control 

Stops  with  the  shore ;  upon  the  watery  plain 

The  wrecks  are  all  thy  deed,  nor  doth  remain 

A  shadow  of  man's  ravage,  save  his  own, 

When,  for  a  moment,  like  a  drop  of  rain,    <r- 

He  sinks  into  thy  depths  with  bubbling  groan, 

Without  a  grave,  unknelFd,  uncoffin'd,  and  unknown.  —  clxxix. 

v      $S    >Xix       i\X- 

In  his  rolling  measures  with  their  majesty  and  their  music, 
the  author  of  the  Odyssey  was  able  to  echo  the  sound  of  the 
ocean  and  reflect  some  phases  of  its  glory.  Few  poets  since 
the  days  of  Homer  have  sung  the  praises  of  the  sea,  and 
perhaps  none  has  been  able  to  capture  and  express  its  evasive 
charm  better  than  Byron.  His  highly-strung  temperament, 
his  passion  for  swimming,  his  inborn  unrest,  his  proud  spirit, 
his  life-long  revolt  against  certain  men  and  their  opinions, 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 


291 


all  qualified  him  to  show  us  the  witchery  of  the  waves  in 
lines  that  may  prove  imperishable. 

Hours  of  Idleness.  —  About  two  years  of  the  infancy  of 
George  Noel  Gordon  Byron  were  passed  in  London.  Then 
to  Gight  in  Aberdeenshire  the  mother,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Catherine  Gordon,  took  her 
little  gray-eyed  child,  who  be- 
came strong  and  handsome  in 
spite  of  his  lameness.  Her  for- 
tune had  been  squandered  by 
the  husband  who  abandoned  her 
shortly  after  George's  birth,  an 
experience  that  was  not  apt  to 
sweeten  her  temper.  In  his  tenth 
year  the  boy  became  Lord  Byron, 
and  with  his  mother  he  went 
southward  to  Newstead  Abbey 
near  Nottingham. 

In  1805  the  lad  began  his 
studies  at  Cambridge,  and  two 
years  later  he  published  Hours 
of  Idleness.  In  this  collection  of 
his  early  poems  are  the  well- 
known  song  Loch  na  Garr  and 
Oscar  of  Aha,  the  outcome  of  the 
poet's  appreciation  of  Macpherson's  Ossian.  In  1808  the 
Edinburgh  Review  attacked  the  young  poet  rather  severely, 
but  next  year  he  had  his  revenge  when  he  issued  the  sar- 
castic English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers. 

Childe  Harold.  —  Shortly  after  publishing  his  satire, 
Byron  began  his  travels  in  Greece,  Turkey,  and  other  Euro- 
pean countries.  When  he  returned  to  England  he  brought 
out  the  first  two  cantos  or  divisions  of  Childe  Harold's 
Pilgrimage,  composed  in  Spenserian  stanzas.  Byron  remarks, 


From  portrait  by  Kramer 


FIG.   104.  —  George  Noel 
Gordon,  Lord  Byron. 


292  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

"  I  awoke  one  morning  and  found  myself  famous."  The 
third  canto  was  written  near  Geneva  in  Switzerland  (1816), 
while  the  fourth  and  last  canto  was  composed  in  Venice  (1817). 

In  the  first  canto  the  poet  sets  forth  the  pilgrim's  impres- 
sions of  Portugal  and  Spain,  in  which  at  this  time  the 
British  were  aiding  the  Spaniards  to  deliver  their  country 
from  Napoleon.  In  the  second  canto  the  pilgrim  visits 
Greece  and  its  islands,  in  the  course  of  which  he  gives  his 
impressions  of  their  past  and  their  future.  In  the  third 
canto  the  pilgrim,  who  is  really  Byron  himself,  gives  a  descrip- 
tion of  Waterloo  and  the  dance  at  Brussels  on  the  eve  of  the 
battle,  and  then  he  tells  of  Lake  Geneva  and  the  noted  men 
who  have  resided  in  its  neighborhood.  In  the  fourth  canto 
are  pictures  of  Italy's  chief  cities,  such  as  Venice,  Florence, 
and  Rome,  including  the  famous  incident  of  the  Dying  Gladia- 
tor, already  mentioned  in  the  opening  chapter  of  this  volume. 
Childe  Harold  then  bids  the  reader  farewell.  The  term 
Childe  is  an  old  word  for  a  young  man  who,  as  in  the  romances 
of  chivalry,  is  preparing  himself  to  secure  the  honors  of 
knighthood. 

The  long  war  against  Napoleon  had  aroused  public  curi- 
osity in  European  life  and  scenery.  Byron's  romantic  and 
brilliant  descriptions,  therefore,  became  popular.  There  is 
no  little  pathos  in  the  ninth  stanza  of  Canto  IV,  if  we  remem- 
ber that  Byron  died  in  his  thirty-sixth  year  in  Greece,  a  land 
which  he  was  gallantly  helping  toward  national  independence. 
Speaking  of  his  native  country  which  he  was  never  to  see 
again,  the  poet  says  : 

Perhaps  I  loved  it  well ;  and  should  I  lay 
My  ashes  in  a  soil  which  is  not  mine, 
My  spirit  shall  resume  it. 

The  Last  Years  in  England.  —  Besides  the  first  and  second 
cantos  of  Childe  Harold,  Byron  wrote  in  England  a  series  of 


THE  EOMANTIC  PERIOD 


293 


metrical  romances  such  as  The  Corsair  (1814)  or  Pirate. 
ScQjLtJiad  made  romantic-Tin rntivp  vnrnn  wry  fashion  al^ 
and  Byron  followed  his  style  of  versification. 

And  the  sheen  of  their  spears  was  like  stars  on  the  sea, 
When  the  blue  wave  rolls  nightly  on  deep  Galilee. 

Every  one  recognizes  these  lines  from    The  Destruction  of 

Sennacherib,  one  of  the  best  of  Byron's    Hebrew  Melodies 

(1815).     This  collection 

of  short  poems,  dealing 

with  incidents  from  the 

J3ible,  seems  iohsLvebeeiT 

written   about  the   time 

of   the   poet's   marriage. 

In  1816  came  the  crisis 

in    his    life.      His    wife, 

whose  maiden  name  was 

Anne  Isabella  Milbanke,  - Castle  of  Chillon' 

left  him  after  a  year  of  married  life,  and  the  public  censured 

Byron  so  severely  that  he  left  England  never  to  return. 

The  Prisoner  of  Chillon. 
-  Besides  the  long  un- 
equal poem,  Don  Juan 
(1819-1823),  Byron  com- 
posed the  well-known 
Prisoner  of  Chillon  (1816). 
Like  the  third  canto  of 
Childe  Harold,  this  narra- 
tive poem  was  written 
under  the  influence  of 
FIG.  106.  —  Dungeon  of  Castle  of  Swiss  scenery.  The  an- 

cient    castle    of    Chillon 

stands  at  the  east  end  of  Lake  Geneva.     The  poem  is  a 

vivid  and  sympathetic  account  of  the  castle  dungeon  in 


294  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

which  lay  Bonnivard  (1496-1570),  a  French  gentleman  who 
suffered  because  he  aided  the  people  of  Geneva  against 
Charles  III  of  Savoy. 

The  Dramas.  —  Byron  had  keen  dramatic  instincts,  but 
he  allowed  his  feelings  to  dominate  his  imagination.  This  is 
appropriate  enough  in  lyrics,  even  if  it  is  not  so  desirable  in 
drama.  Shakespeare  hid  himself  so  well  that  we  know  not 
which  one  of  his  hundreds  of  characters  is  most  like  their 
creator.  Byron,  on  the  other  hand,  reveals  himself,  in  his 
favorite  moods  of  disdain  or  remorse,  more  than  any  great 
poet  in  English  literary  history.  Manfred  (1817)  and  Cain 
(1822)  are  two  of  his  most  striking  dramas,  both  of  which  have 
been  acted  in  Germany. 

Byron's  Literary  Position.  —  If  sentimentalism  involves 
keen  interest  in  one's  own  emotions,  then  Byron  is  perhaps 
the  greatest  of  all  s^jilimentaj  poets.  Often  he  seems  to  be 
afraid  that  readers  will  discover  that  he  has  sentiment  - 
something  which  every  man  ought  to  have  —  and  his  ready 
wit  comes  to  the  rescue.  The  satire  that  steals  into  some  of 
his  most  beautiful  passages  tends  to  weaken  the  wings  of  his 
imagination,  so  that  he  seldom  rises  to  heights  of  true  emo- 
tion. Gifted  with  wit,  eloquence,  love  of  the 'sea  and  the 
mountains,  Byron  takes  high  rank  as  a  poet  of  description  and 
sentiment.  His  writings  have  exercised  no  little  influence, 
especially  in  France,  Germany,  and  Russia,  some  of  whose 
writers  have  openly  professed  to  be  his  followers. 

.     PERCY  BYSSHE  SHELLEY  (1792-1822) 

Shelley  enjoyed  rebellion  against  things  as  they  are,  and 
attempted  through  his  poetry  to  reform  the  world.  He  may 
be  compared  to  Blake  as  a  mystic,  beholding  invisible'  pres- 
ences, and  believing  in  experiences  that  were  sometimes 
purely  imaginary.  It  was  in  1792  that  Percy  Bysshe  Shelley 


THE  It  OMAN  TIC  PERIOD 


295 


was  born  at  Field  Place,  near  Horsham,  in  the  county  of 
Sussex.  After  leaving  Eton  in  1811,  he  was  for  a  short  time 
a  student  at  Oxford.  That  same  year  he  married  a  girl 
named  Harriet  Westbrook. 

Poems  Written  in  England.  —  Influenced  by  the  manner  of 
Southey,  Queen  Mob  (1813)  is  a  poem  in  sympathy  with  the 
aims  of  the  French  Revolution. 
Queen  Mab,  a  fairy  mentioned  in 
the  first  act  of  Shakespeare's 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  leads  the  soul 
of  the  poet  through  the  world, 
pointing  out  the  faults  connected 
with  everything  that  is  human. 
The  wise  fairy  also  reveals  the 
fact  that  the  world  is  ever  mov- 
ing on  toward  happiness. 

In  blank  verse  Alastor  (1815) 
is  the  story  of  a  lonely  spirit 
feeing  from  itself  through  scenes 
of  desolate  grandeur,  that  are 
regarded  as  Wordsworth  might 
regard  them.  Alastor  is  really 
Shelley  expressing  his  longing  for 
the  vision  of  beauty,  the  love  that 
is  ideal,  love  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Another  romance  of  revolution 
s  the  Revolt  of  Islam  (1817).  Some  parts  of  the  poem  are 
hard  to  understand,  because  the  author's  thoughts  are  not 
clear  to  himself.  The  poet  feels  sure  that  Christianity  and 
other  matters  are  not  yet  perfect,  and  he  resembles  Burns 
n  advocating  woman's  rights,  though  in  a  manner  different 
Tom  that  of  the  northern  poet. 

Poems  Written  Abroad.  —  It  is  not  for  his  dramas  such  as 
The  Cenci  (1819)  that  Shelley  is  remembered  by  lovers  of 


From  the  portrait  by  A.  Curran,  National 
Portrait  Gallery 


FIG.  107.  —  Percy  Bysshe 
Shelley. 


296  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

literature,  but  for  his  short  simple  lyrics.  What  splendor  of 
imagination  leaps  through  The  Sensitive  Plant  (1820)  with 
its  longing  for  ideal  beauty,  and  the  swift  Ode  to  the  West 
Wind  (1820)  with  its  opening  lines  - 

O  wild  West  Wind,  thou  breath  of  Autumn's  being, 
Thou,  from  whose  unseen  presence  the  leaves  dead 
Are  driven,  like  ghosts  from  an  enchanter  fleeing. 

Most  popular  and  most  musical  of  all  these  delicate  lyrics 
is  The  Cloud  (1820),  whose  opening  words  are  a  temptation 
to  read  again  and  again. 

I  bring  fresh  showers  for  the  thirsting  flowers, 

From  the  seas  and  the  streams  ; 
I  bear  light  shade  for  the  leaves  when  laid 

In  their  noonday  dreams. 

Surely  the  skylarks  would  never  cease  to  sing  songs  of 
praise  over  the  resting-place  of  Shelley,  if  only  they  could  read 
and  understand  his  tribute  To  a  Skylark  (1820).  One 
stanza,  creating  beauty  and  joy  even  out  of  depression,  has 
been  quoted  so  often  that  every  one  knows  - 

We  look  before  and  after, 

And  pine  for  what  is  not : 
Our  sincerest  laughter 

With  some  pain  is  fraught ; 
Our  sweetest  songs  are  those  that  tell  of  saddest  thought. 

An  English  Grave  in  Italy.  —  For  four  years  Shelley  had 
lived  in  Italy.  One  day  in  July  a  squall  capsized  the  boat  in 
which  he  was  sailing  in  the  Gulf  of  Spezzia.  After  the  body 
drifted  ashore,  it  was  burned  on  the  beach  in  accordance  with 
the  law  of  Italy,  and  the  ashes  were  taken  to  rest  in  Rome. 
The  year  before  the  poet  died,  he  had  composed  Adonais, 
an  elegy  on  Keats,  a  volume  of  whose  poems  was  in  Shelley's 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  297 

pocket  at  the  time  he  was  drowned.  No  elegy  so  great  had 
been  written  since  Milton's  Lycidas,  and  this  is  how  Shelley  in 
the  Adonais  describes  the  place  where  his  own  remains  now 
rest  near  those  of  Keats : 

....  the  Spirit  of  the  spot  shall  lead 
Thy  footsteps  to  a  slope  of  green  access 
Where,  like  an  infant's  smile,  over  the  dead 
A  light  of  laughing  flowers  along  the  grass  is  spread. 

Shelley's  Literary  Position. — As  an  artist  in  words,  Shelley 
has  few  rivals.  The  man  who  wrote  the  Defence  of  Poetry 
was  an  excellent  writer  of  prose,  but  it  is  as  a  poet  that  he  is 
known  to  most  readers.  His  place  is  among  the  world's 
great  masters  of  lyric  poetry.  Devoid  of  the  wit  of  Byron, 
narrower  and  less  profound  in  Eis  knowledge  of  human  nature 
than  Burns,  Shelley  surpasses  them  both  in  sheer  flights  of 
imagination.  Cowper  and  Wordsworth  are  mainly  poets  of 
individual  men  in  rural  communities7wh^as~Byron^and 
Shelley  are  poets  of  humanity  in  its  social  aspects,  struggling 
forward  to  achieve  greater  happiness.  When  Shelley  is 
charmed  by  the  simple  aspects  of  life,  he  throws  the  strongest 
spell  over  his  readers. 

JOHN  KEATS  (1795-1821) 

Next  to  the  life  of  Chatterton,  that  of  Keats  is  the  briefest 
among  English  poets.  The  ancestry  of  Keats,  like  that  of 
Coleridge,  has  been  traced  back  to  the  old  Keltic  borderland 
-  Cornish  or  Welsh.  At  school  John  Keats  was  a  general 
favorite,  enjoyed  Latin  poetry,  and  resembled  Byron  in  being 
a  clever  boxer.  In  his  fifteenth  year  he  began  to  learn  the 
art  of  surgery,  but  after  a  time  he  gave  up  the  medical  pro- 
fession. 

It  was  in  1813  that  the  poetic  instincts  of  Keats  were 


298 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


awakened   by   reading   Spenser's   Faerie  Queene.     He   now 
became  so  interested  in  the  art  of  verse-writing  that  he  tried 

to  find  out  in  what  way 
the  poets  had  achieved 
success.  This  lad  of 
eighteen  knew  that  it  is 
necessary  to  write  verse 
of  some  sort,  before  it  is 
possible  to  write  inspired 
or  imaginative  verse.  For 
several  years  he  made 
experiments  in  verse  writ- 
ing, especially  in  the 
heroic  couplet-and  in  the 
sonnet.  This  is  easily 
seen  when  we  examine 
the  collection  of  poems 


Painted  from  memory  by  Severn;  National  Portrait 
Gallery.  Photographed  oy  special  permission  of  Sir 
George  Scharf 


n 


MOM 


FIG.  108.  —  John  Keats. 


which  he  published 
1817.  No  young  man  of 
twenty-two  had  ever  pro- 
duced such  a  sonnet  as 
that  of  Keats  on  Chap- 
man's Homer.  It  is  as 
fine  as  any  of  the  sonnets 
of  Milton  and  Wordsworth.  Its  author  forgot  that  it  was 
not  Cortez,  but  Balboa,  who  discovered  the  Pacific. 

Endymion.  —  In  1818  Keats  published  Endymion,  whose 
opening  lines  tell  us  that  — 

A  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  for  ever  : 
Its  loveliness  increases  ;  it  will  never 
Pass  into  nothingness  ;  but  still  will  keep 
A  bower  quiet  for  us,  and  a  sleep 
Full  of  sweet  dreams. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  299 

This  narrative  poem,  composed  in  heroic  couplets,  is 
dedicated  to  the  memory  of  Chatterton.  It  relates  the  old 
Greek  story  of  the  love  of  the  moon  goddess  for  the  shepherd 
boy  Endymion.  This  boy  is  not  unlike  Keats  himself.  His 
imagination  has  been  quickened  through  contact  with  the 
heavenly  powers.  Henceforth  he  strives  to  attain  ideal 
beauty.  The  narrative  is  long,  rather  difficult  to  read  as  a 
story,  yet  strewn  with  many  passages  of  poetic  charm.  It  is 
the  creation  of  one  who  has  not  yet  set  free  all  the  power  that 
is  in  him. 

Later  Years.  —  In  1819  Keats  began  to  suffer  from  lung 
disease,  and  he  sought  relief  in  the  mountain  air  of  the  north. 
When  he  returned  to  London,  he  fell  in  love  with  Fanny 
Brawne,  a  lady  of  great  personal  attractions  and  talent. 
Full  of  ambition,  struggling  against  ill  health,  lashed  by  the 
critics,  Keats  knew  that  he  must  soon  part  forever  from  the 
woman  he  loved.  Need  we  wonder  that  he  deemed  his  name 

writ  in  water  "  ?  With  his  faithful  friend  Severn  he  sailed 
for  Italy  in  September,  1820.  On  the  deck  of  the  vessel  he 
wrote  his  last  sonnet,  longing  — 

Still,  still  to  hear  her  tender-taken  breath, 
And  so  live  ever  —  or  else  swoon  to  death. 

From  Naples  he  went  to  Rome  where,  early  in  1821,  in  his 
twenty-fifth  year,  he  breathed  his  last  in  the  arms  of  his 
friend  Severn.  There  he  lies,  a  short  distance  from  the  dust 
of  Shelley. 

Poems.  —  In  1820,  the  year  he  sailed  for  Italy,  Keats  pub- 
lished the  third  and  last  volume  of  his  poems.  Isabella  is  a 
story  of  medieval  Florence.  It  tells  of  the  murder  of  Isabella's 
lover,  Lorenzo,  by  her  two  brothers  and  of  her  tender  devotion 
to  his  memory.  As  poetry  it  is  superior  to  Endymion. 
The  longest  of  these  later  poems  is  the  unfinished  Hyperion. 
Suggested  by  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  it  is  the  story  of  a 


300  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

struggle  between  superhuman  powers.  Hyperion  leads  the 
Titans,  who  are  overthrown  by  the  younger  deities  led  by  the 
sun-god  Apollo.  The  poem  suggests  that  mere  physical 
light  is  inferior  to  the  light  of  beauty,  which  comes  through 
thought  and  memory.  The  Eve  of  St.  Agnes  describes  the 
elopement  of  Porphyro  and  Madeline,  and  Lamia  depicts 
the  ruin  of  a  young  knight  by  enchantment. 

The  Odes.  —  The  same  volume  contains  six  odes  of  which 
To  the  Nightingale  is  one  of  those  most  admired  for  its  classic 
beauty.  The  poet  listens  to  - 

Perhaps  the  self-same  song  that  found  a  path 

Through  the  sad  heart  of  Ruth,  when,  sick  for  home, 

She  stood  in  tears  amid  the  alien  corn  ; 
The  same  that  oft-times  hath 

Charmed  magic  casements,  opening  on  the  foam 
Of  perilous  seas,  in  faery  lands  forlorn. 

Other  readers  prefer  the  ode  On  a  Grecian  Urn,  whose  clos- 
ing lines  declare  that  — 

Beauty  is  truth,  truth  beauty  —  that  is  all 
Ye  know  on  earth,  and  all  ye  need  to  know. 

Keats's  Literary  Position.  —  This  last  quotation  strikes  a 
keynote  which  is  most  clearly  heard  in  the  odes  of  Keats. 
More  than  any  of  the  English  poets  hejs  fond  of  poetry  for  its 
own  sake,  without  regard  to  any  lesson  which  it  may  convey. 
In  his  love  of  beauty  he  most  resembles  Spenser.  Unlike 
Byron  and  Shelley,  Keats  cares  nothing  about  current  topics, 
which  to  him  seem  mere  bubbles  upon  the  surface  of  the 
stream  of  Time.  As  an  artist  in  words  and  a  master  of 
cadence  he  has  few  rivals.  His  work  left  a  deep  impression 
upon  Tennyson  and  other  poets  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  301 


2.   PROSE   WRITERS 

Edward  Gibbon  (1737-1794),  who  had  been  educated  at 
Oxford,  achieved  literary  fame  through  The  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire  (1776-1788).  The  subject  was  sug- 
gested to  him  during  a  visit  to  Rome  in  1764,  while  listening 
to  the  barefooted  friars  as  they  sang  their  vespers  in  the 
temple  of  Jupiter.  This  work  comprises  nearly  thirteen 
centuries  of  the  world's  history,  ending  with  the  taking  of 
Constantinople  by  the  Turks.  It  is  in  the  sections  dealing 
with  Christianity  that  Gibbon  is  unsympathetic,  and  his 
taste  in  other  matters  at  times  is  doubtful.  It  remains  the 
most  remarkable  work  of  its  kind  in  the  English  language. 

Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan  (lI51^Jj&lfiX  an  orator  as  well 
as  a  dramatist,  was  born  in  Dublin.  The  Rivals  (1775)  is 
one  of  the  few  plays  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  still 
appear  on  the  stage.  Mrs.  Malaprop,  who  poses  as  an  edu- 
cated lady  of  fashion,  has  caused  much  innocent  laughter. 
Among  Sheridan's  other  plays  the  most  familiar  is  The 
School  for  Scandal  (1777).  This  is  the  comedy  in  which  Lady 
Teazle  appears.  Not  since  the  Restoration  period  had  plays 
so  witty  and  so  brilliant  been  composed  in  England. 

Frances  Burney  (1752-1840)  achieved  "titerary  distinction 
through  her  Evelina  (1778)^Jiv^lx_SQcial  satire  that  is  still 
highly  entertaining.  She  is  often  known  as  Madame 
D'Arblay,  because  in  1793  Alexandre  Pinchard  D'Arblay 
married  this  witty,  kindly  authoress.  Her  two  best  novels, 
whose  style  owes  much  to  a  study  of  French  literature,  were 
penned  before  she  was  thirty. 

Ann  Radcliffe  (1764-1822)  wrote  prose  fiction,  a  form  of 
literature  which  was  scarce  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Few 
people  now  read  Mrs.  Radcliffe's  romances,  yet  she  deserves 
mention  as  the  authoress  of  The  Italian  (1797),  the  best 
prose  romance  written  before  Scott's  time.  Her  Mysteries 


302 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


of  Udolpho  (1794)  is  superior  to  Walpole's  Gothic  ro- 
mance, even  if  it  is  by  no  means  the  best  of  her  works. 
She  knew  how  to  tell  a  story,  and  she  knew  how  to  surprise 
her  readers. 

Maria  Edgeworth  (1767-1849),  daughter  of  an  Irish  land- 
lord, with  no  little  humor  and  pathos  depicts  Irish  life  in 
Cas.tle  Rackrent  (1800).  Miss  Edgeworth's  numerous  works 

are  usually  composed 
with  taste  and  with  sym- 
pathy, and  they  were 
widely  read.  In  her 
second  series  of  Fashion- 
able Tales  was  included 
The  Absentee  (1812), 
which  Macaulay  consid- 
ered one  of  the  best 
novels  ever  written  by  a 
woman.  Her  stories  for 
children  are  still  admired, 
possibly  suggesting  to 
Scott  his  fascinating 
Tales  of  a  Grandfather. 

Jane  Austen  (1775- 
1818),  a  native  of  Steventon  in  Hampshire,  enjoys  the  rare 
distinction  of  having  written  books  that  are  more  popular 
now  than  they  were  when  they  were  published  more  than  a 
century  ago.  Though  it  was  not  printed  until  after  her 
death,  Nort hanger  Abbey  (1797)  was  written  in  her  twenty- 
second  year.  It  is  partly  a  mock  imitation  of  the  Gothic 
romance,  but  Miss  Austen  was  strong  as  a  writer  of 
realistic  fiction ;  that  is,  she  wrote  novels  concerning  what 
she  had  observed.  Naturally  her  heroines  are  better  drawn 
than  her  heroes,  and  yet  her  male  characters  are  not 
wooden  dolls. 


After  the  painting  by  Chappel 
FIG.  109.  —  Maria  Edgeworth. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 


303 


Miss  Austen's  first 
great  novel  was  Sense 
and  Sensibility  (1811), 
in  which  she  quietly 
ridicules  the  sentimental 
style  of  novel,  of  which 
Richardson  was  the 
pioneer.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  Pride  and 
Prejudice  (1813),  one  of 
the  classics  of  English 
prose  fiction.  In  Miss 
Austen's  pages  there  is 
nothing  to  startle  the 
reader,  yet  she  has 
perhaps  never  been  sur- 
passed in  delineating  the 


FIG.  111.  — Charles  Lamb. 


From  an  original  family  portrait 
FIG.   1 10.  —  Jane  Austen. 

little  vanities  and  quiet  virtues  of 
everyday  society.  She  has  the 
gift  of  making  ordinary  things 
interesting. 

Charles  Lamb  (1775-1834),  es- 
sayist, critic,  and  poet,  was  a 
schoolmate  of  Coleridge  and  a 
friend  of  Wordsworth  and  Southey. 
He  earned  his  bread  and  butter  by 
acting  as  a  clerk  for  the  East  India 
Company  in  London.  In  1806  his 
farce,  Mr.  //.,  was  produced  on 
the  stage  for  one  night,  and  when 
the  audience  began  to  hiss  it, 
Lamb  joined  heartily  in  the  hiss- 
ing. Next  year  appeared  Tales 
Founded  on  the  Plays  of  Shakespeare 


304  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

by  Charles  and  Mary  Lamb.  Lamb's  Tales  are  the 
abridged  dramas  of  Shakespeare  rendered  into  charming 
prose.  Among  his  verses  The  Old  Familiar  Faces  (1798)  is 
well  known. 

All  through  life  the  kindly  essayist  cared  for  and 
lived  with  his  sister  Mary.  In  his  Letters  he  declares, 
"  The  greatest  pleasure  I  know  is  to  do  a  good  action 
by  stealth  and  have  it  found  out  by  accident."  His 
literary  fame  rests  mainly  on  the  inimitable  Essays  of 
Elia  (1823)  and  Last  Essays  of  Elia  (1833),  reprinted 
from  the  London  Magazine.  Their  author  reflects  every 
mood  and  touches  every  chord  of  feeling  with  a  master 
hand.  Wit,  humor,  and  delicate  fancy  are  among  the 
qualities  that  win  the  heart  of  every  reader.  Lamb's 
essays  are  more  intimate,  more  human,  than  those  of 
Addison  and  Steele. 

Walter  Savage  Landor  (1775-1864)  was  another  man  who 
gained  his  reputation  by  prose,  rather  than  by  volumes  of 
verse.  His  greatest  work  is  the  Imaginary  Conversations 
of  Literary  Men  and  Statesmen  (1824-1829).  It  contains 
discussions  of  history,  literary  criticism,  and  other  topics. 
Landor's  style  is  inclined  to  be  bookish;  that  is,  much 
of  the  charm  of  his  writing  depends  upon  the  possession  of 
a  fair  amount  of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  reader. 

William  Hazlitt  (1778-1830),  whether  we  do  or  do  not  agree 
with  his  opinions,  is  always  full  of  life,  and  so  he  has  no 
trouble  in  keeping  his  readers  awake.  His  first  important 
work  was  The  Characters  of  Shakespeare's  Plays  (1817), 
reprinted  from  Leigh  Hunt's  paper  The  Examiner.  In  the 
form  of  lectures  he  produced  English  Comic  Writers  (1819) 
and  other  works.  Among  his  best-known  essays  is  Table 
Talk  (1821-1822).  Hazlitt  at  his  best  is  one  of  the  most  help- 
ful and  entertaining  of  English  essayists,  especially  in  the 
field  of  literary  criticism. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 


305 


James  Henry  Leigh  Hunt  (1784-1859)  was  an  essayist,  a 
poet,  and  a  critic.  His  chief  work  was  done  while  editor  of  a 
weekly  journal  known  as  The  Examiner.  Among  his  poems 
is  the  Story  of  Rimini  (1816),  which  is  based  on  one  of  the 
scenes  in  Dante's  Divine  Comedy.  It  is  not  so  familiar  as  the 
shorter  poems  like  The  Glove  and  the  Lion  (answered  by 
Browning  in  The  Glove)  and  A bou  Ben  Adhem  (1844).  Wit 
and  Humour  (1846)  and  Men,  Women,  and  Books  (1847) 
are  among  the  best  of  his  prose  works.  Hunt's  essays  are 
often  attractive  even  for  readers  of  the  twentieth  century, 
though  Lamb  and  Hazlitt  are  more  popular. 


THOMAS  DE  QUINCEY  (1785-1859) 

In  the  famous   Confessions  of  an   English  Opium-Eater 
(1821)  is  the  familiar  passage  — 

Grief  !  thou  art  classed  amongst 
the  depressing  passions.  And 
true  it  is  that  thou  humblest  to 
the  dust,  but  also  thou  exaltest 
to  the  clouds.  Thou  shakest  us 
with  ague,  but  also  thou  steadiest 
like  frost.  Thou  sickenest  the 
heart,  but  also  thou  healest  its 
infirmities.  —  Sequel,  Pt.  I. 

It  is  in  his  Confessions  that  De 
Quincey  proves  himself  to  be  a 
master-builder  of  dreams  in  dig- 
nified melodious  prose.  The 

finest   Section   Of  this   book    is    the      After  the  portrait  Dy  Sir  GeorgeJ.Watson 

Gordon 

last,  where  he  recalls,  as  with  an 
enchanter's  wand,  the  array  of 
fantastic  phantoms  which  passed 
before  him  while  he  was  under 


sj 

<*CtMn/ceto 
/ 

FIG.  112.— Thomas  De  Quincey. 


306  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  influence  of  tincture  of  opium.  The  truth  is,  however, 
that  the  brilliant  De  Quincey  had  been  a  natural  seer  of 
visions  from  childhood. 

The  son  of  a  Manchester  merchant,  Thomas  De  Quincey 
was  born  in  1785,  and  in  his  eighteenth  year  he  entered 
Oxford.  His  prose  has  been  much  admired  for  the  gorgeous 
roll  of  its  style,  a  style  that  is  relieved  at  times  by  little 
jokes  which  puzzle  rather  than  please  some  people.  Among 
his  numerous  essays,  some  of  which  tell  about  himself,  are 
Suspiria  de  Profundis  (Sighs  from  the  Depths,  1845),  The 
English  Mail  Coach,  and  his  ironical  Murder  Considered  as 
One  of  the  Fine  Arts,  the  title  of  which  illustrates  De 
Quincey's  occasional  love  of  what  is  startling  and  con- 
tradictory. His  critical  reviews  are  often  original  and 
scholarly.  Chivalrous  in  attitude,  stately  in  style,  is  his 
Joan  of  Arc  (1847),  one  of  whose  noble  passages  speaks  for 
itself. 

What  is  to  be  thought  of  her  ?  What  is  to  be  thought  of  the 
poor  shepherd  girl  from  the  hills  and  forests  of  Lorraine,  that 
—  like  the  Hebrew  shepherd  boy  from  the  hills  and  forests  of 
Judea  —  rose  suddenly  out  of  the  quiet,  out  of  the  safety,  out 
of  the  religious  inspiration,  rooted  in  deep  pastoral  solitudes, 
to  a  station  in  the  van  of  armies,  and  to  the  more  perilous 
station  at  the  right  hand  of  kings  ?  The  Hebrew  boy  inaugu- 
rated his  patriotic  mission  by  an  act,  by  a  victorious  act,  such  as 
no  man  could  deny,  but  so  did  the  girl  of  Lorraine,  if  we  read 
her  story  as  it  was  read  by  those  who  saw  her  nearest.  Adverse 
armies  bore  witness  to  the  boy  as  no  pretender;  but  so  they 
did  to  the  gentle  girl.  Judged  by  the  voices  of  all  who  saw 
them  from  a  station  of  good  will,  both  were  found  true  and  loyal 
to  any  promises  involved  in  their  first  acts.  Enemies  it  was 
that  made  the  difference  between  their  subsequent  fortunes. 

De  Quincey's  prose,  with  its  careful  detail,  its  splendid 
rhythm,  and  its  choice  diction,  contains  something  for  every 
taste.  He  is  a  whimsical  genius,  highly  entertaining  to  a 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 


307 


reader  with  a  little  leisure.  Like  Kipling,  his  remarks  some- 
times remind  him  of  another  story,  but  unlike  Kipling  he  tells 
it  before  he  returns  to  the  one  with  which  he  started.  He 
was  a  man  with  that  love  of  imagery  so  characteristic  of  the 
English  romantic  movement.  De  Quincey  influenced  Ruskin 
and  other  writers  of  the  nineteenth  century.  In  1859  he  died 
near  Edinburgh,  where  he  spent  the  last  thirty  years  of  his 
life. 

SIR  WALTER  SCOTT  (1771-1832) 

Lights  and  Shadows.  -  Tis  night  in  Edinburgh.  The 
silvery  starlight  smiles  upon  the  city  in  whose  bosom  is 
gathered  much  of  the  glory  and 
the  sorrow  of  thirteen  hundred 
years.  Again  across  the  centuries 
we  hear  the  farewell  salute  of  the 
Castle  cannon  as  James  IV  rides 
cheerily  to  that  death  on  Flodden 
Field  (1513),  which  is  depicted  in 
Marmion.  Once  more  we  behold 
Wilson,  the  daring  smuggler, 
brought  from  his  cell  in  the 
Tolbooth  jail  (1736),  which  Scott 
calls  the  Heart  of  Midlothian. 
Once  more  we  catch  the  drone  of 
the  bagpipes,  as  the  rebel  troops 
march  along  the  Canongate  ^ 

(1745)    under    officers    such    as  f 

Wa verley  FlG>  113'  ~~  Sir  Walter  Scott* 

Behind  such  scenes  as  these  are  loves  and  sorrows  un- 
known to  the  world.  For  a  moment  they  appear  in  an  old 
song  or  ballad,  only  to  vanish  into  the  mist.  Behind  the 
historic  chivalry  of  bygone  days,  behind  gayety  and  valor 
open  to  the  eyes  of  the  world,  lie  shadows  —  the  struggles  of 


From  the  portrait  by  SiT  w  ,  Gordon 


308 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


those  in  poverty,  the  sigh  of  a  breaking  heart,  the  stain  of 
unavailing  tears  for  a  lover  buried  on  the  distant  field  of 
battle.  A  few,  only  a  few,  of  those  lights  and  shadows  are 
recalled  in  the  impassioned  songs  and  stories  of  Walter  Scott. 
First  Period  of  Scott's  Career.  —  Walter  Scott,  poet  and 
novelist,  was  born  at  Edinburgh  in  1771.  It  was  his  mother 
who  first  awakened  in  him  a  love  of  poetry.  This  love  was 
deepened  by  his  own  interest  in  old  ballads,  which  are  stories 


FIG.  114.  —  The  To]  booth  in  the  Canongate,  Edinburgh. 


in  verse^  whereas  Burns  had  been  first  interested  in  old  songs, 
which  are  verses  that  express  feeling.  In  1783  young  Scott 
entered  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  excelling  as  a  student 
of  history,  and  then  he  studied  law  in  his  father's  office. 

His  first  literary  work  was  in  the  form  of  translations 
from  German.  The  author  of  the  Man  of  Feeling,  Henry 
Mackenzie,  to  whom  Scott  afterward  dedicated  Waverley, 
had  lectured  in  Edinburgh  on  German  literature,  so  that  the 
study  became  fashionable.  Burger's  Lenore  was  translated 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  309 

by  Scott  (1796)  in  a  single  night,  and  later  he  made  other 
translations  from  German.  Next  year  he  was  an  officer  in 
a  corps  of  volunteer  cavalry .  The  same  year  Scott  married 
Charlotte  Carpenter  or  Charpentier,  an  English  lady  of 
French  descent,  with  whom  he  lived  very  happily. 

His  genial  nature  won  for  him  many  friends,  some  of  whom 
helped  to  collect  old  ballads  and  stories.  Scott  had  a  better 
chance  to  make  such  a  collection  when  in  1799  he  became 
sheriff  of  Selkirkshire,  a  position  which  comprises  all  the  duties 
of  a  county  judge.  Ballads  of  his  own  appeared  in  1800,  and 
two  years  later  he  published  the  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish 
Border,  a  collection  which  included  many  popular  ballads 
never  before  printed. 

The  Second  Period.  —  Scott,  like  Shakespeare,  was  not  a 
class  poet,  but  a  man  whose  sympathy  extended  to  all  classes, 
the  poor  as  well  as  the  rich.  Those  laureates  of  the  people, 
whom  we  term  ballad  singers,  were  by  no  means  all  gone  in 
Scott's  day,  for  that  was  a  time  when  vaudeville  and  motion- 
picture  shows  were  unknown.  It  is  characteristic  of  Scott 
that  the  earliest  of  hisom^tdk^mmances,  the  Lay  o  the 
.Minstrel  (1805),  is^^story^ung  or  recited  by  ^ 
who  made  his  living  by  singing  to  the  accompaniment  of  his 
harp.  The  tale  is  of  the  sixteenth  century,  though  the  lay 
or  poem  is  supposed  to  be  sung  a  century  later. 

A  wandering  harper,  scorned  and  poor, 

He  begged  his  bread  from  door  to  door.  —  Introd. 

Scott's  readers  are  often  reminded  of  the  claims  of  the  lowly. 
The  springs  of  pity  are  always  kept  unchoked.  He  brings 
home  to  us  the  appeal  of  failure,  the  poetry  of  lost  causes,  and 
at  the  same  time  his  common  sense  always  sees  the  origin  of 
success. 

It  was  at  his  farm  of  Ashestiel  on  the  river  Tweed  that 
Scott  completed  the  foregoing  picture  in  verse,  and  then  came 


310 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Marmion  (1808),  whose  hero  is  an  Englishman.  No  literary 
work  ever  did  so  much  to  break  down  the  national  prej- 
udices of  England  and  Scotland.  The  poet  deliberately 
makes  the  love  story  reach  its  climax  at  the  battle  of  Flodden, 
the  greatest  of  England's  triumphs  over  Scott's  native 
land.  His  compliment  to  womanhood  is  familiar. 

0  Woman !  in  our  hours  of  ease, 

Uncertain,  coy,  and  hard  to  please, 

And  variable  as  the  shade 

By  the  light  quivering  aspen  made  ; 

When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brow, 

A  ministering  angel  thou  !  —  Canto  VI,  xxx. 

Most  of  us  have  read  the  poet's  closing  wish  : 

To  thee,  dear  schoolboy,  whom  my  lay 
Has  cheated  of  thy  hour  of  play, 
Light  task  and  merry  holiday  ! 


When  Scott  published 


FIG.  115.- 


-  Ellen  Douglas. 

of  Perthshire  known  as  the  Trossachs. 
haired  Ellen  Douglas,  the  Lady  of  the  Lake. 


The  Lady  of  the  Lake  (1810),  he 
coaxed  men  and  boys  all 
over  the  English-speak- 
ing world  to  enjoy 
poetry.  He  taught  the 
Highlander  and  the  Low- 
lander  of  Scotland  to 
respect  and  admire  each 
other's  good  qualities. 
This  poem  tells  how 
Fitz- James  during  a  deer- 
hunt  (about  1535)  loses 
his  way  near  the  lake 
called  Loch  Katrine, 
which  lies  in  that  district 
He  meets  the  dark- 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD 


311 


A  foot  more  light,  a  step  more  true, 
Ne'er  from  the  heath-flower  dash'd  the  dew ; 
E'en  the  slight  harebell  raised  its  head, 
Elastic  from  her  airy  tread.  —  Canto  1,  xviii. 


She  is  the  daughter  of  an  outlawed  gentleman,  who  is  under 

the  protection  of  Roderick  Dhu  and  his  clansmen.     Finally, 

through  Ellen,  her  father 

is     reconciled     to     King 

James  V,  whom  she  had 

supposed     to     be     Fitz- 

James. 

Many  other  poems 
were  written  by  Scott, 
the  noblest  of  which  is 
the  story  of  Macdonald, 
Lord  of  the  Isles  (1815), 
a  romantic  poem  based 
partly  upon  Barbour's 
Bruce.  The  incidents  of 
love  and  adventure  lead 
up  to  the  battle  of  Ban- 
nockburn.  All  Scott's 
poems  are  full  of  action. 
As  a  poet  he  has  perhaps 
no  superior  in  describing 
men  that  can  fight  for 
borne  and  freedom. 

Third  Period.  —  The 
third  period  from  1814  to  1826  was  the  brightest  in  Scott's 
career,  and  it  was  during  these  twelve  years  that  he  pub- 
lished his  finest  novels.  In  1812  he  left  Ashestiel  to  reside 
at  Abbotsford,  and  two  years  later  he  published  Waverley, 
a  story  of  the  rebellion  of  1745.  The  book  was  commenced 


FIG.  116.  —  Loch  Katrine   with  Ellen's 
Isle. 


312 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


in  1806,  and  thrown  aside  because  a  friend  did  not  seem  to 
care  for  it.  Scott  came  across  the  opening  chapters  in  an 
old  desk,  and  completed  the  story  in  about  four  weeks. 
Although  its  author  was  unknown  it  captivated  the  fancy 
of  the  entire  English-speaking  world. 

Scott  did  not  cease  to  write  poetry,  but  he  knew  that  more 
people  enjoy  prose.  The  rest  of  the  novels  came  out  in  rapid 
succession.  Among  the  best  are  Guy  Mannering,  with  its 
delightful  tint  of  fortune-telling;  Old  Mortality,  showing 
us  the  Scottish  Covenanters,  that  is,  people  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  who  made  a  covenant  or  agreement  to  up- 
hold their  own  form  of 
church  government;  Rob 
Roy,  revealing  one  of 
Scott's  finest  heroines, 
Diana  Vernon ;  The  Heart 
of  Midlothian,  with  its 
account  of  the  noble 
Jeanie  Deans. 

In  1820  came  Ivanhoe, 
a    romance    whose    scene 
is  laid  in  England  during  j 
the   reign    of    Richard   ij 
(1189-1199),     when     the 
Normans    were    still    in- 
clined    to     despise     thei 
Saxons.       Ivanhoe,      the 
crusader  who  returns   to 
England  in  disguise,  has 
won    the    admiration    ofj 
thousands      of      readers. 
Who  is  not  familiar  with  Robin  Hood,  Friar  Tuck,  Lady*! 
Rowena,  and  especially  with  Rebecca,  one  of  the  noblest  J 
portraits  of  womanhood  in  English  literary  history  ?     Scot 


FIG.  117.  —  Ivanhoe. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  313 

is  said  to  have  drawn  her  portrait  from  Washington  Irving's 
account  of  a  Philadelphia  Jewess.  Ivanhoe,  the  English 
knight,  becomes  her  champion  against  the  haughty  Knight 
Templar. 

Other  splendid  historical  romances  of  this  period  are  The 
Abbot,  with  its  portraits  of  the  unfortunate  Mary  Stuart 
and  the  fine  heroine  Catherine  Seyton;  Kenilworth,  deal- 
ing with  Queen  Elizabeth  and  Amy  Robsart ;  Quentin  Dur- 
ward  and  the  exciting  adventures  in  France ;  and  The 
Talisman,  in  which  the  crusaders  try  to  rescue  the  Holy 
Land  from  the  Mohammedans. 

The  Fourth  Period.  —  In  recognition  of  his  literary  genius 
Scott,  like  Macaulay,  Tennyson,  Barrie,  and  other  noted 
writers,  was  offered  a  title.  Six  years  later  came  a  mis- 
fortune that  ultimately  cost  him  his  life.  In  order  to  assist 
his  publisher  Ballantyne,  Scott  became  a  partner,  though  he 
took  no  direct  interest  in  the  business  details.  In  1826  the 
firm  became  bankrupt,  with  debts  amounting  to  more  than 
half  a  million  dollars.  Friends  offered  to  help  Scott,  but  he 
was  too  proud  to  accept  help  and  too  honorable  to  make 
settlement  with  the  creditors.  Always  he  had  been  a  hard 
worker,  and  now  in  the  spirit  of  true  heroism  he  began  to  toil 
harder  than  ever  in  order  to  pay  every  creditor.  In  five 
years  he  repaid  more  than  half  of  the  indebtedness,  and 
Scott's  executors  paid  the  remainder. 

Among  the  works  that  Scott  now  produced  were  Wood- 
stock, introducing  Cromwell  and  other  celebrities ;  The 
Fair  Maid  of  Perth,  with  its  thrilling  account  of  the  fight 
on  the  North  Inch  of  Perth ;  and  Tales  of  a  Grandfather 
(1826-1831).  A  child  can  understand  and  enjoy  those 
tales ;  a  man  will  not  readily  lay  them  aside. 

Dryburgh  Abbey.  —  It  was  in  the  autumn  of  1831  that 
Scott  sailed  to  Europe  in  search  of  health.  The  following 
summer,  when  he  returned  home  to  Abbotsford,  his  dogs 


314 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


fawned  upon  him  with  delight  and  licked  their  master's 
hands.  On  the  23d  of  September,  1832,  the  spirit  of  this 
great  and  good  man  had  fled.  Within  the  ivy-mantled  walls 
of  Dryburgh  Abbey  he  rests,  while  near  at  hand  the  river 
Tweed  winds  gently  toward  the  North  Sea. 

Classification    of   the    Novels.  —  The   Waverley    novels, 
taking  their  title  from  the  first  of  the  series,  may  be  divided 

into  three  classes  — those 
whose  scenes  are  (1) 
Scottish,  (2)  English, 
(3)  Foreign. 

The  Scottish  prose  ro- 
mances or  novels  are 
Waverley  (1814) ;  Guy 
Mannering  (1815) ;  The 
Antiquary,  The  Black 
Dwarf,  and  Old  Mortality 
(1816) ;  Rob  Roy  (1817) ; 
The  Heart  of  Midlothian 
(1818);  The  Bride  of 
Lammermoor  and  The 
Legend  of  Montrose 
(1819);  The  Monastery 
and  The  Abbot  (1820); 
The  Pirate  (1821);  St. 
Ronaris  Well  (1823) ; 
Redgauntlet  (1824)  ; 
The  Fair  Maid  of  Perth 


From  the  painting  by  Mtllais 
FIG.   118.  —  The  Bride  of  Lammermoor. 


Chronicles  of  the  Canongate  (1827) 
(1828);   Castle  Dangerous  (1831). 

The  English  novels  are  Ivanhoe  (1820) ;  Kenihvorth  (1821) ; 
The  Fortunes  of  Nigel  (1822) ;  PeverU  of  the  Peak  (1823) ; 
The  Betrothed,  whose  scenery  is  Welsh  (1825) ;  Woodstock 
(1826). 

The  foreign  novels  are  Quentin  Durward   (1823) ;     The 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  315 

Talisman  (1825) ;  Anne  of  Geierstein  (1829) ;  Count  Robert 
of  Paris  (1831). 

Although  a  novel  is  supposed  to  be  a  picture  of  real  life  as 
observed  by  the  novelist,  Scott  treated  of  the  past  so  as  to 
make  it  as  real  and  natural  as  life  to-day.  The  older  ro- 
mance was  fanciful  and  inclined  to  be  unreal,  but  Scott 
changed  romance  so  that  it  is  practically  a  novel  beautified 
by  romantic  or  imaginative  color  borrowed  from  history. 
Sometimes  the  opening  chapters  of  the  Waverley  novels 
seem  a  little  tedious,  but  the  remainder  is  highly  entertain- 
ing and  sometimes  thrilling. 

Character  Drawing.  —  Six  years  before  Scott  married 
Charlotte  Carpenter,  he  was  in  love  with  another  lady,  who 
preferred  to  be  wedded  to  a  wealthy  banker.  It  has  been 
alleged  that  Scott's  disappointment  affected  the  fate  of  some 
of  his  heroines,  but  this  is  extremely  doubtful.  The  most 
delightful  of  all  the  heroines  is  Jeanie  Deans,  not  a  lady  of 
fashion,  but  a  girl  in  humble  life,  who  wins  every  one  by  her 
sterling  character. 

With  the  exception  of  Shakespeare,  no  writer  of  English 
has  ever  created  a  greater  variety  of  characters  than  Scott. 
Gentiles  and  Jews,  Christians  and  Mohammedans,  gypsies 
and  queens,  beggars  and  kings,  smugglers  and  teachers, 
soldiers  of  fortune  and  preachers,  are  depicted  with  a  kindly 
humor  and  sympathy.  These  characters  live  because  their 
creator  was  alive,  full  of  fire  and  energy ;  they  live  because 
the  man  who  sympathizes  with  opposites  is  dramatic  by 
instinct. 

Scott's  Place  in  Literature.  —  As  a  poet  Scott  possesses 
that  love  of  nature  which  has  always  been  a  feature  of  the 
poets  of  the  north.  His  romantic  landscapes  are  based  upon 
actual  observation,  and  his  narratives,  whether  in  verse  or  in 
prose,  are  never  mere  fancies  of  the  brain.  Like  Burns  and 
Byron,  he  was  widely  read  in  his  own  day,  and  he  has  stood 


316  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  test  of  time  better  than  Byron,  even  if  not  so  successfully 
as  Burns. 

It  is  in  prose  fiction,  however,  that  Scott  attained  greatest 
renown.  He  was  the  creator  of  the  historical  romance. 
He  has  had  numerous  followers,  yet  none  has  outshone  the 
Wizard  of  the  North  as  a  story-teller,  even  if  we  admit  that  he 
wrote  so  hurriedly  as  to  fall  into  occasional  mistakes  in  the 
construction  of  his  sentences.  Dumas  and  Victor  Hugo  in 
France,  besides  many  others  all  over  the  world,  have  imitated 
the  author  of  the  Waverley  novels.  The  good  sense,  the 
varied  knowledge,  the  powerful  memory,  the  seeing  eye,  the 
constructive  imagination  of  Scott  enabled  him  to  add  much 
to  the  happiness  of  the  world,  and  this  is  an  achievement 
which  is  not  likely  to  be  soon  forgotten. 

SUMMARY 

1.  The    romantic    period    of    literature    is    swayed    by 
high  imaginative  activity,  which  shows  itself  in  different 
ways. 

2.  Percy's    Reliques    (Relics   or   Remains)    quickens   our 
appreciation  of  history.      Cowper's  poetry  is  realistic  rather 
than  romantic.       In  other  words  Cowper  usually  described 
what  he  had  observed. 

S.^-Macphfij^oH^Q^^^  seems  to  mark  the  beginning  of 
the  romantic  movement  in  the  British  Isles. 

*4.  The  boy  Chatterton  wrote  the  Rowley  poems  and  other 
works  that  are  usually  easier  to  understand  than  Blake's 
poems. 

5.  No  other  farmer  ever  wrote  poems  and  songs  like  those 
composed  by  the  author  of  Tarn  o'  Shanter. 

6.  Wordsworth,   Coleridge,   and  Southey  are  sometimes 
known  as  the  Lake  poets.     There  are  few  people  who  have 
not  read  the  weird  Ancient  Mariner. 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  317 

7.  Campbell's  naval  songs  and  Moore's  Irish  Melodies  are 
easy  to  read  and  enjoy. 

8.  The  most  popular  of  Byron's  poems  is  Childe  Harold. 
His  Prisoner  of  Chillon  tells  about  French  prisoners  in  a 
Swiss  castle. 

9.  In  a  new  and  beautiful  way  we  can  enjoy  simple  objects, 
if  we  read  lyrics  like  The  Cloud  by  Shelley  and  To  the  Nightin- 
gale by  Keats. 

10.  During  the  romantic  period  great  poets  were  more 
numerous  than  great  writers  of  prose.     Some  of  the  best 
prose  works    were  written    by  Gibbon   the    historian,   by 
Sheridan  the  dramatist,  by  Frances  Burney,  Maria  Edge- 
worth,  and  Jane  Austen,  the  novelists,  and  by  the  essayists 
Lamb,  Landor,  Hazlitt,  and  Hunt^ 

11.  De  Quincey's  splendid  prose  style  influenced  Ruskin 
and  other  writers  of  the  nineteenth  century.     His  Confessions 
relate  some  of  his  own  experiences  better  than  any  auto- 
biography. 

12.  The  story  of  Ellen  Douglas  at  Loch  Katrine  is  what  we 
find  in  Scott's  Lady  of  the  Lake,  one  of  his  romances  in  verse. 
Among  the  Waverley  novels  one  of  the  most  familiar  is 
Ivanhoe,  named  after  an  English  knight  in  disguise,  who 
risked  his  life  in  order  to  protect  Rebecca,  the  noble  and 
attractive  Jewess. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  In  which  of  Cowper's  poems  do  we  find  the  man  whom  Defoe 
called  Robinson  Crusoe?  Which  is  the  merriest  of  Cowper's 
poems  ?  .  After  reading  one  or  more  of  his  compositions,  close  the 
book  and  write  in  your  own  words  what  you  have  been  reading. 

2.  Who  was  Ossian?     Why  did  the  Germans  and  others  appre- 
ciate Macpherson's  work  ?     Who  are  the  two  youngest  poets  of  this 
period?    Why  are  they  remembered?     Have  you  ever  tried  to 
write  verses  about  anything  of  interest  ?     It  may  amuse  you  to  try. 

3.  Why  is  Burns  so  popular?     Which  of  his  poems  or  songs  do 
you  like  best  ?    Why  ?    Can  you  repeat  any  of  the  lines  ? 


318  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

4.  Who  were  the  Lake  poets,  and  why  were  they  so  called? 
Name  one  or  two  poems  of  each  of  these  writers.     Prepare  an  essay 
showing  in  what  respects  they  were  like  or  unlike  each  other.     Read 
The  Ancient  Mariner,  and  reproduce  it  in  your  own  words,  stating 
what  purpose  its  author  had  in  view. 

5.  Which  writers  of  this  period  showed  great  appreciation  of 
German  literature  ?     How  did  they  indicate  their  attitude  ?     Was 
Southey  the  only  writer  of  this  period  who  took  a  pirate  as  his 
theme  ? 

6.  Do  you  remember  which  poet  wrote  about  a  girl  in  America  ? 
What  writers  of  this  period  expressed  a  desire  to  be  in  America? 
Write  a  letter  wherein  you  explain  all  this  to  one  of  your  friends. 
How  many  of  the  birthplaces  of  famous  people  have  you  found 
on  one  of  the  maps  ?     Tell  what  you  know  about  the  work  done  by 
Irish  writers  of  this  period. 

7.  Which  literary  men  of  this  period  allude  to  the  sea?     Why 
does  Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage  have  such  a  title?     Have  you 
memorized  any  of  the  lines  in  the  third  or  fourth  canto,  or  have 
you  read  The  Prisoner  of  Chillonf      Which  poem  do  you  prefer? 
Why? 

8.  We  study  literature  for  pleasure,  but  we  never  find  the  pleas- 
ure until  we  read.     Have  you  read  any  of  the  shorter  poems  of 
Shelley  or  Keats  ?     Which  ? 

9.  Who  coined  such  phrases  as  —  God  made  the  country,  and 
man  made  the  town ;   Variety's  the  very  spice  of  life ;   Auld  Lang 
Syne ;  A  voice  so  thrilling  ne'er  was  heard ;   A  sadder  and  a  wiser 
man ;  Tis  distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view ;  Coming  events 
cast  their  shadows  before ;  The  sweetest  songs  are  those  that  tell  of 
saddest  thought ;  A  thing  of  beauty  is  a  joy  for  ever  ? 

10.  Do  you  recall  any  notable  works  of  prose  fiction  written  by 
women  of  this  period  ?     Which  of  these  writers  is  the  most  distin- 
guished?   Why? 

11.  What  did  Lamb  and  his  sister  do  to  promote  an  interest  in 
Shakespeare?     Write  an  essay  on  any  subject  discussed  by.  De 
Quincey  or  by  any  other  essayist  of  the  romantic  period. 

12.  Name  some  of  the  leading  characters  that  figure  in  The  Lady 
of  the  Lake,  and  reproduce  in  your  own  words  any  one  of  the  scenes 
in  it  or  in  Ivanhoe.      In  what   respects  do  the   Waverley  novels 
differ  from  prose  fiction  previously  written  ? 


THE  ROMANTIC  PERIOD  319 

ADDITIONAL   AUTHORS    WITH    CHIEF   WORKS 

Poets.  —  James  Beattie  of  Laurencekirk  (1735-1803),  The  Min- 
strel; Robert  Ferguson  (1750-1774),  The  Farmer's  Ingle;  George 
Crabbe  (1754-1832),  The  Village;  Carolina  Oliphant,  Lady  Nairne 
(1766-1845),  The  Rowan  Tree  and  other  songs ;  James  Hogg  (1770- 
1835),  The  Queen's  Wake;  Robert  Tannahill  of  Paisley  (1774-1810), 
Jessie  the  Flower  of  Dunblane;  Reginald  Heber  (1783-1826),  From 
Greenland's  Icy  Mountains  and  other  missionary  hymns ;  James 
Sheridan  Knowles  (1784-1862),  Virginius,  a  tragedy;  Felicia 
Dorothea  Hemans  (1793-1835),  The  Forest  Sanctuary;  Thomas 
Hood  (1799-1845),  Song  of  the  Shirt  and  other  poems  of  pathos  or 
humor,  by  the  prince  of  English  punsters. 

Prose  Writers.  —  Henry  Mackenzie  (1745-1831),  The  Man  of 
Feeling,  whose  author  wrote  the  earliest  review  of  Burns's  works; 
William  Beckford  (1759-1844),  Vathek;  Jane  Porter  (1776-1850), 
Scottish  Chiefs ;  Henry  Hallam  (1777-1859),  Constitutional  History 
of  England;  John  Wilson  or  "Christopher  North"  (1785-1854), 
Nodes  Ambrosiance  (Divine  Nights) ;  Captain  Frederick  Marryat 
(1792-1848),  Midshipman  Easy,  one  of  a  series  of  first-class  sea- 
stories  for  boys,  the  most  interesting  ever  written ;  John  Gibson 
Lockhart  (1794-1854),  Life  of  Walter  Scott,  one  of  the  best  biog- 
raphies in  English,  written  by  Scott's  son-in-law;  Mrs.  Anna 
Jameson  (1794—1860),  Characteristics  of  Shakespeare* 's  Women; 
William  Carleton  (1794-1869),  Traits  and  Stories;  Michael  Banim 
(1796-1876),  Crohoore  of  the  Bill  Hook;  Mary  Shelley  (1797-1851), 
Frankenstein;  Samuel  Lover  (1797-1868),  Rory  O'More. 

SUPPLEMENTARY   READING 

Inexpensive  editions  of  many  English  classics  are  published  by 
most  educational  firms.  Biographies  of  leading  writers  of  the 
romantic  period  are  in  the  English  Men  of  Letters  series  published 
by  Macmillan  ($.40  ea.)  and  in  Great  Writers  series  (Simmons), 
N.  Y.,  $.40  ea.,  and  Great  Writers  series  by  Scribner's  ($1.00  ea.). 
Complete  editions  of  the  poets  are  in  the  Astor  series  published  by 
Crowell  ($.60),  a  firm  which  has  several  series  at  higher  prices. 
Other  well-known  editions  of  English  poets  are  the  Globe  by  Mac- 
millan ($1.75),  the  Oxford  by  the  Oxford  Press  ($1.75),  and  the 
Cambridge  by  Houghton,  from  $1.50  to  $3.00.  The  Dryburgh 
edition  of  the  Waverley  novels  is  published  by  Macmillan  Co.  at 
$1.25  each  volume. 


320  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Besides  general  works  previously  mentioned,  the  following  books 
are  recommended : 

a.   For  Classes 

G.  A.  Aitken,  Sheridan's  Rivals  and  The  School  for  Scandal,  Phila. 
(McKay),  2  vols.,  $.35ea. 

A.  Beatty,  De  Quincey's  Confessions  of  an  Opium  Eater,  N.  Y. 
(Macmillan),$.25. 

C.  S.  Broiison,  English  Poems,  Chicago  (University  Press),  Vols. 
3  and  4,  $1.00  ea. 

C.  S.  Dougall,  The  Burns  Country,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.50. 

E.  D.  Harris,  Story  of  Rob  Roy,  N.  Y.  (Appleton),  $  .60. 

J.  Heermans,  Jane  Austen's  Pride  and  Prejudice,  N.  Y.  (Mac- 
millan), $.25. 

J.  G.  Lockhart,  Life  of  Walter  Scott,  N.  Y.  (Crowell),  $1.25. 

C.  M.  Newman,  De  Quincey's  Joan  of  Arc,  etc.,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
$.25. 

C.  H.  Page,  British  Poets  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  Bost.  (San- 
born),  $2.00. 

Bliss  Perry,  Little  Masterpieces  of  Literature,  N.  Y.  (Doubleday), 
$.50. 

b.  For  Teachers  and  Others 

H.  A.  Beers,  History  of  English  Romanticism  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  $2.00. 

H.  A.  Beers,  History  of  English  Romanticism  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  $1.75. 

C.  S.  Brown,  The  Later  English  Drama,  N.  Y.  (Barnes),  $1.20. 

E.  N.  Calisch,  The  Jew  in  English  Literature,  Richmond,  Va 
(Book  and  Stationery  Co.),  $1.50. 

W.  J.  Courthope,  History  of  English  Poetry,  6  vols.,  N.  Y 
(Macmillan),  $3.25  each.  Vol.  VI. 

F.  B.  Gummere,  Democracy  and  Poetry,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $1.50 
C.  H.  Herford,  The  Age  of  Wordsworth,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.00 
E.  M.  Lang,  Literary  London,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $1.50. 

T.  Percy,  Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry,  N.  Y.  (Button), 
2  vols.,  $.35  ea. 

W.  L.  Phelps,  Beginnings  of  the  English  Romantic  Movement, 
Bost.  (Ginn),  $1.00. 

W.  W.  Skeat,  Works  of  Thomas  Chatterton,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
2  vols.,  Aldine  ed.,  $.75  ea. 


THE  EOMANTIC  PERIOD  821 

Macpherson's  Ossian  edited  by  W.  Sharp,  Canterbury  Poets 
series,  N.  Y.  (Simmons),  $.40. 

E.  C.  Stedman,  Nature  and  Elements  of  Poetry,  Bost.  (Houghton), 
$1.50. 

Leslie  Stephen,  Hours  in  a  Library,  4  vols.,  N.  Y.  (Putnam's), 
$6.00.  Discusses  Scott,  De  Quincey,  etc. 

Arthur  Symons,  Romantic  Movement  in  English  Poetry,  N.  Y. 
(Button),  $2.50. 

R.  Tombo,  Ossian  in  Germany,  N.  Y.  (Lemcke),  $1.00. 


CHAPTER   XIV 
THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 
1837-1900 

THE  Victorian  Period  of  English  literature  is  unmarked  by  a 
single  tendency  such  as  we  have  noticed  in  the  classical  and 
romantic  periods,  and  it  exhibits  so  many  great  men  that  it  is 
difficult  to  name  it  after  any  one  person,  as  in  the  case  of 
Chaucer,  for  instance.  For  these  reasons  it  seems  best  to 
group  the  writers  of  the  last  sixty  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century  under  a  single  title  which,  like  Anglo-Saxon  or 
Norman-English,  will  distinguish  this  period  from  all  others 
in  literary  history. 

Democracy  and  Literature.  —  Each  generation  profits  by 
the  increasing  thoughtfulness  of  earlier  generations.  At  its 

/beginning  the  Victorian  period  appeared  to  be  in  no  way 

/      different  from  its  predecessor,  yet  gradually  public  opinion 

became  more  enlightened  as  more  people  began  to  read  and 

s  to  think.  The  long  war  with  Napoleon  Bonaparte  brought 
great  suffering  to  the  poor  everywhere  in  Europe,  and  in 
England  the  effort  to  lighten  the  burden  led  to  the  Reform 

^Bill  of  1832.  Finally  about  fifty  years  later,  by  one  step  after 
another,  every  law-abiding  citizen  of  the  British  Isles  had 
acquired  the  right  to  vote  for  a  member  of  Parliament. 

Literature  was  strongly  affected  by  the  growing  power  of 
the  people.  For  a  generation  or  more  the  literature  of 
Britain  flourished  as  it  had  rarely  done  since  the  Kelts  and 
Saxons  and  Normans  blended  into  a  national  unit.  It 
seemed  almost  to  have  regained  the  youth  and  the  vigor  of 

322 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  323 

?hakespearean  days.  The  age  was  inspired  by  enthusiasm, 
an  enthusiasm  which  was,  partly  at  least,  the  outcome  of  the 
longer  and  stronger  arm  of  an  intelligent  democracy.  Whether 
men  of  letters  favored  or  opposed  these  signs  of  the  times, 
their  best  work  was  an  expression,  if  not  an  exposition,  of 
modern  progress  in  the  form  of  noble  prose  and  poetry. 

Industrial  Arts  and  Literature.  —  Another  feature  of  this 
period  is  the  expansion  of  art,  especially  the  industrial  arts. 
The  first  steamship  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  1819,  nearly 
twenty  years  before  Victoria  ascended  the  throne,  but  it 
was  during  her  reign  that  the  marine  service  of  all  nations 
attained  such  wonderful  speed  and  comfort.  Cheap  post- 
age, the  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  motor  car,  and  a 
hundred  other  devices  contributed  so  much  to  the  exchange 
of  thought  with  all  countries  that  literature  was  bound  to 
be  affected. 

No  doubt  the  spirit  of  mechanical  invention  differs  from 
the  spirit  of  literary  art,  and  yet  who  will  deny  that  me- 
chanical achievements  have  broadened  artistic  expression  ? 
There  is  no  occasion  to  fear  that  inventions  will  injure 
poetry.  From  different  angles  both  the  industrial  arts  and 
the  fine  arts  —  music,  painting,  sculpture,  architecture, 
poetry,  etc.  —  are  trying  to  solve  the  same  problem.  All 
are  striving  to  increase  human  happiness.  New  inventions 
will  afford  new  themes  for  literature,  as  Mr.  Kipling,  for 
instance,  was  quick  to  perceive. 

Printing  was  invented  in  the  fifteenth  century,  but  it  was 
not  put  to  its  full  use  until  the  Victorian  period.  Before  that 
time  newspapers,  magazines,  and  books  appealed  mainly  to 
the  learned  or  the  wealthy,  and  not  to  all  grades  of  civilized 
society.  That  this  expansion  in  the  use  of  printing  had  a 
direct  effect  upon  literature,  few  will  care  to  deny.  Prose 
fiction,  for  instance,  never  attained  such  a  place  as  it  did 
during  the  nineteenth  century,  and  its  heroes  and  heroines 


324  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

are  mainly  persons  whom  we  may  meet  in  the  street  any 
day.  The  epic  of  old  was  concerned  with  gods  and  aristo- 
cratic heroes ;  the  novel  of  the  Victorian  period  is  virtually 
the  poor  man's  epic. 

Scientific  Thought  and  Literature.  —  If  the  Victorian  pe- 
riod was  marked  by  social  progress  and  by  invention,  it  was 
also  a  time  of  remarkable  scientific  thought.  The  doctrine 
of  evolution  advanced  by  Charles  Darwin  (1809-1882)  and 
by  Alfred  Russel  Wallace  (1823-1913)  concerns  itself  with 
biology,  and  it  is  only  one  of  a  number  of  theories.  Public 
discussion  of  the  views  of  Darwin,  Herbert  Spencer  (1820- 
1903),  and  other  thinkers  strongly  affected  the  thought  and 
the  literature  of  the  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

It  was  then  that  the  minute  delineation  of  human  character 
rand  human  motives  became  prominent  in  prose  fiction.  The 
problems  aroused  by  scientific  discussions  furnished  novel- 
ists, poets,  and  dramatists  with  new  themes.  Whatever  in- 
terests humanity  most  is  an  important  part  of  life,  and  life 
is  the  ultimate  source  of  all  literature. 

1.  POETS 

ELIZABETH  BARRETT  BROWNING  (1806-1861) 

In  power  of  sympathy  and  self-sacrifice,  in  quick  apprecia- 
tion of  the  finer  issues  of  life,  and  in  other  respects  woman 
has  always  been  man's  superior.  It  is  significant  that  the 
first  illustrious  writer  of  the  Victorian  period  was  Elizabeth 
Barrett,  who  became  the  wife  of  the  poet  Robert  Browning. 
In  her  fourteenth  year  she  wrote  her  first  published  poem, 
the  Battle  of  Marathon,  whose  theme  takes  us  back  to  the 
year  490  B.C.,  when  the  Greeks  under  Miltiades  defeated  the 
Persian  invaders.  Miss  Barrett  had  a  good  education, 
including  a  knowledge  of  Greek.  This  was  clearly  proved 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


325 


when  she  issued  a  version  of  the  Prometheus  Bound  (1833), 
a  translation  from  the  Greek  of  ^Eschylus.  These  earlier 
poems  show  the  influence 
of  Pope  and  Byron. 

Champion  of  the  Chil- 
dren. —  It  was  in  the 
second  stage  of  her  career 
(1833-1845)  that  Miss 
Barrett  transformed  grief 
into  pleasure.  For  years 
she  had  been  an  invalid, 
yet  she  was  never  forget- 
ful of  the  sorrows  of 
others.  The  volume  en- 
titled The  Seraphim 
(1838)  contains  beautiful 
religious  poetry.  Ro- 
maunt  of  the  Page  came 
out  in  1839,  and  Poems 
five  years  later. 

The  gifted  poetess  had 
by  this  time  become  the 
avowed  champion  of  de- 
fenceless childhood.  Her 
Cry  of  the  Children  is  a 
passionate  appeal  for  the 
protection  of  poor  chil- 
dren overworked  in  mines 
and  factories.  With  convincing  directness  and  simplicity 
she  asks  — 

Do  ye  hear  the  children  weeping,  0  my  brothers, 

Ere  the  sorrow  comes  with  years  ? 
They  are  leaning  their  young  heads  against  their  mothers, 

And  that  cannot  stop  their  tears. 


From  the  painting  by  Gordigtani 
FIG.  119.  —  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning. 


326  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

The  young  lambs  are  bleating  in  the  meadows ; 

The  young  birds  are  chirping  in  the  nest ; 
The  young  fawns  are  playing  with  the  shadows ; 

The  young  flowers  are  blowing  toward  the  west  — 
But  the  young  young  children,  0  my  brothers, 

They  are  weeping  bitterly  ! 
They  are  weeping  in  the  playtime  of  the  others, 

In  the  country  of  the  free. 

Sonnets  from  the  Portuguese.  —  In  1845  Miss  Barrett  was 
loved  by  the  great  poet  Robert  Browning.  In  her  Sonnets 
from  the  Portuguese  (1850),  all  of  which  were  composed  prior 
to  her  marriage,  she  breathes  forth  her  ideas  of  pure  love. 
None  of  the  sonnets  was  shown  to  her  lover  until  after  the 
wedding  in  1846.  These  forty-four  sonnets  are  entirely 
original,  the  title  being  chosen  merely  as  a  disguise.  In 
beauty  and  sincerity  they  occupy  a  high  place  among  English 
love  sonnets. 

Life  in  Italy.  —  When  in  1846  the  Brownings  took  up  their 
residence  at  Florence  in  Italy,  Mrs.  Browning's  fame  was 
higher  than  that  of  her  husband.  For  fifteen  years  she 
resided  at  the  Casa  Guidi  (Guidi  House),  and  there  it  was 
that  she  wrote  Casa  Guidi  Windows  (1851),  in  which  she 
describes  the  struggle  of  Italy  to  drive  out  the  Austrian  con- 
querors. Aurora  Leigh  (1856),  the  last  of  her  love  romances, 
is  a  long  narrative  poem  that  advocates  social  reform.  In 
1861  Mrs.  Browning  died  at  her  Italian  home.  She  rests 
near  the  main  entrance  to  the  English  Cemetery  in  Florence. 
On  her  monument  is  the  simple  inscription,  E.  B.  B. 

Mrs.  Browning's  Place  in  Literature.  —  Mrs.  Browning  j 
holds  the  highest  place  among  English  poetesses,  even  if  it  be 
admitted   that    she    is    sometimes    careless    in    form.     Her ) 
spontaneity  and  her  occasional  indifference  to  the  rules  of  i 
verse  remind  us  of  Byron,  yet  she  rises  far  above  him  in  self- 
restraint  and  in  sincerity.     Her  lyric  expressions  of  sympathy  || 
with  the  downtrodden  are  suggestive  of  Cowper  and  Burns, 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  327 

and  yet  she  is  the  slave  of  no  predecessor.  Herjndependence 
is  one  of  her  leading  characteristics.  It  is  by  her  lyrics,  and 
especially  by  her  sonnets,  that  Mrs.  Browning  is  likely  to  be 
remembered  long  after  the  present  generation  has  disappeared. 

EDWARD  FITZGERALD  (1809-1883) 

Fitzgerald,  like  Burke,  is  a  Norman-Irish  surname,  al- 
though Edward  Fitzgerald  was  born  at  Bredfield  House, 
Suffolk.  At  Cambridge  he  was  studying  in  the  same  college 
h  Tennyson  and  Thackeray,  and  in  later  life  he  was  a 
riend  of  both  the  poet  and  the  novelist.  His  translations 
rom  Greek  and  Spanish  are  practically  forgotten,  but  his 
baiifat  of  Omar.  ^Khayyam  (1859)  is  familiar.  Rubaiyat 
s  a  Persian  word  meaning  quatrains  or  four-lined  stanzas. 
Imar  Khayyam  means  Omar  the  Tent-maker,  a  Persian 
istronomer  and  poet  whose  home  was  at  Naishapur  about 
dght  centuries  ago. 

Fitzgerald  freely  translated  a  number  of  Omar's  stanzas 
md  printed  seventy-five  of  them  in  1859,  adding  other  stanzas 
n  later  editions.  The  poem  creates  the  impression  of  one 
flrho  has  lost  the  hope  and  the  enthusiasm  of  healthy  manhood. 

note  of  the  sombre  music  of  Fitzgerald's  version  may  be 
leard  in  - 

Alas,  that  spring  should  vanish  with  the  rose  ! 
That  youth's  sweet-scented  manuscript  should  close  ! 

The  nightingale  that  in  the  branches  sang, 
Ah,  whence,  and  whither  flown  again,  who  knows  ? 

ALFRED,  LORD  TENNYSON  (1809-1892) 

In  1809_at  Somersby  in  Lincolnshire  the  "  roofs  heard  the 
earliest  cry  "  of  Alfred  Tennyson.  As  a  boy  he  was  writing 
rerses  in  imitation  of  Pope  and  Scott  and  Byron,  and  in  his 


328 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


eighteenth  year  appeared  Poems  by    Two  Brothers,  a  title 

scarcely    accurate,    since    Alfred,    Frederick,    and  Charles 

Tennyson  were  contributors. 

Next  year  Alfred  entered  Trinity   College,   Cambridge, 

where  his  friendship  began  with  Arthur,  son  of  Henry  Hallam 

the  historian.     Young  Ten- 
nyson won  the  chancellor's 
gold    medal    for    Timbuctoo  \ 
(1829),  a  poem  written   ins 
blank    verse.     In    1830    he 
published  a  volume  contain- j 
ing  such  poems  as  Mariana^ 
and  Oriana.     Evidently  the! 
poet  had  not  yet  attained,1 
vigor     and      naturalness, 
though   he  was  already  re-j 
vealing  his  ^aciitfi__sen$e  of 


FIG.  120.  —  Alfred,  Lord  Tennyson 


If 


we 


look 


IR    1833     came    anothe 
series    of   poems,    includin 
/The    Lady   of   Shalott,    Th 
Palace  of  Art,  and  The  Lotos 
Eaters,}  the    last    of    whic 
has  the  word-music  and  th 
dreamy   charm   of    Spensei 
with    the    poet's    eyes,    it    i 


and    Keats. 

alluring  — 

To  muse  and  brood  and  live  again  in  memory 

With  those  old  faces  of  our  infancy, 

Heap'd  over  with  a  mound  of  grass.  —  Stanza  V. 

For  nine  years  Tennyson  published  nothing,  partly  because 
of  the  bitter  contempt  of  the  London  Quarterly,  one  of  th< 
leading  British  magazines.  In  1842  were  printed  twc 
volumes,  which  brought  Tennyson  a  popularity  that  contiii 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  329 

ued  until  his  death.  Some  of  the  poems  in  these  volumes 
were  revised  reprints  of  earlier  work,  but  among  the  new 
creations  were  Morte  d' Arthur  (Death  of  Arthur),  Dora, 
Ulysses,  Locksley  Hall,  Sir  Galahad,  and  Break,  Break,  Break. 
In  the  old  Greek  story  concerning  Ulysses,  the  poet  sees 
and  expresses  romance  in  its  perfect  form.  It  is  useless  to 
comment  upon  the  art  of  lines  such  as  — 

The  lights  begin  to  twinkle  from  the  rocks : 

The  long  day  wanes  :   the  slow  moon  climbs :  the  deep 

Moans  round  with  many  voices.     Come,  my  friends, 

'Tis  not  too  late  to  seek  a  newer  world. 

Push  off,  and  sitting  well  in  order  smite 

The  sounding  furrows ;  for  my  purpose  holds 

To  sail  beyond  the  sunset  and  the  baths 

Of  all  the  western  stars,  until  I  die. 

It  may  be  that  the  gulfs  will  wash  us  down : 

It  may  be  we  shall  touch  the  Happy  Isles.  —  54-63. 

Ideals  of  progress,  of  human  evolution,  so  fill  Locksley  Hall 
that  many  readers  have  been  content  to  wait  - 

Till  the  war  drum  throbb'd  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags  were 

furl'd 
In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of  the  world. 

—  Stanza  64. 

The  lights  deepen  the  shadows  of  Break,  Break,  Break,  with 
its  four  short  stanzas.  Intense  grief  has  few  words.  Home 
come  the  ships  — 

But  0  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand, 

And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still !  —  Stanza  3. 

The  Princess.  —  In  1847  came  a  delicately  playful  college 
poem  in  blank  verse,  The  Princess.  Through  the  figure  of 
the  Princess  Ida  the  poet  presents  his  conception  of  the 
aspirations  of  a  woman  of  intellect.  This  poem  includes 
the  splendid  lullaby  Sweet  and  Low,  as  well  as  short  lyrics 


330  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

that  were  never  excelled  by  their  author.  The  more  one 
dwells  upon  them,  the  more  is  one  convinced  that  neither 
Tennyson  nor  any  other  person  could  create  more  purely 
poetic,  more  beautiful  lines  than  — 

0  sweet  and  far  from  cliff  and  scar 
The  horns  of  Elfland  faintly  blowing  ! 

—  Bugle  Song,  Stanza  2. 

Here  Tennyson  is  like  a  magician  standing  at  the  gateway  to 
the  land  of  enchantment. 

In  Memoriam.  —  In  1850  Tennyson  succeeded  Words- 
worth as  poet  laureate  and  married  Emily  Sellwood.  He  also 
published  his  best  known  work  In  Memoriam.  Seventeen 
years  earlier  his  close  friend,  Arthur  Henry  Hallam,  had  died 
in  Vienna.  In  memory  of  him  the  poet  presents  a  record 
of  his  own  sorrow  and  religious  doubts  during  the  three  years 
following  his  friend's  death.  In  spite  of  its  length  Tennyson's 
lament  is  more  human,  more  appealing,  than  Milton's  Lycidas 
or  Shelley's  Adonais.  It  may  be  compared  with  Pope's 
Essay  on  Man,  in  having  furnished  a  large  number  of  familiar 
quotations.  It  is  a  stately  defence  of  the  poet's  faith  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul.  It  does  not  sound  the  depths  of 
human  agony  and  despair.  It  has  beauty  of  phrase  and 
sentiment  rather  than  profound  passion  or  insight,  and  to 
live  in  the  atmosphere  of  this  noble  elegy  is  to  live  far  above 
self-seeking  worldliness.  It  is  to  dwell  in  a  region  of  sweet 
reasonableness. 

Idylls  of  the  King.  —  A  series  of  twelve  poetical  pictures  of 
King  Arthur  and  his  knights  of  the  Round  Table  is  what  we 
find  in  Tennyson's  Idylls  of  the  King.     This  series  is  based 
mainly  on  Malory's  Morte    d' Arthur  and  partly  on  Lady ; 
Charlotte  Guest's    translation  of   the  Mabinogion    (1838).  • 
Mabinogion  means  juvenile  tales,  and  Lady  Guest's  work 
is  a  translation  from  Welsh  of  four  Arthurian  romances  of  j 


THE   VICTORIAN   PERIOD 


331 


the  twelfth  century,  and  seven  other  prose  tales  found  in 
the  Red  Book  of  the  fourteenth  century. 

Tennyson  made  a  long  study  of  the  Arthur  legend,  and 
visited  Wales  because  of  its  association  with  the  king  of 
ancient  Britain.  After 
working  on  the  poems 
for  about  twenty  years, 
he  published  in  1859  the 
first  installment  of  the 
Idylls  in  Enid,  Vivien, 
Elaine,  and  Guinevere, 
and  it  was  not  until  1885 
that  the  last  of  the 
twelve  idylls  was  com- 
pleted. 

The  germ  of  these 
>oems  in^ blank  verse 
las  been  traced  to  the 
short  lyric  entitled  The 
Lady  of  Shalott.  The 
spirit  of  the  man  who 

ByG.Dore 
OVes     honor     above     all      FlG<  121.— Lancelot  bids  adieu  to  Elaine. 

else,     the     same     spirit 

;hat  ennobles  Scott's  metrical  romances,  is  seen  in  the 
selection  of  King  Arthur  as  the  hero  of  the  twelve  idylls. 
The  stories  are  allegories,  in  which  Arthur  is  the  soul  or  tfie 
soul's  ideal,  Modred  (his  nephew)  is  unbelief  or  scepticism, 
Merlin  science,  Excalibur  (the  magic  sword)  war,  and  the 
Round  Table  is  the  means  at  man's  disposal,  his  capacity  for 
improvement.  In  short,  the  idylls  are  intended  to  represent 
the  conflict  of  man's  spirit  with  temptation.  Arthur,  as  in 
Spenser's  Faerie  Queene,  is  the  human  soul,  the  gentleman, 
i;he  ideal  knight,  fighting  ever  upward  toward  spiritual 
perfection. 


332 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Gareth  and  Lynette  (1872). — Among  the  more  notable 
idylls  are  The  Coming  of  Arthur,  Gareth  and  Lynette,  Lancelot 
and  Elaine,  The  Holy  Grail,  and  The  Passing  of  Arthur.  A 
glance  at  two  or  three  may  illustrate  the  character  of  all  the 
idylls.  For  instance,  in  the  opening  scene  of  Gareth  and 
Lynette,  Gareth,  talking  to  himself,  is  eager  in  the  spring- 
time to  see  the  world.  He  goes  to  his  mother,  Queen  Belli- 
cent,  who  consents  to  grant  his  desire  if  for  a  year  and  a  day  he 
will  serve  in  disguise  in  the  kitchen  of  King  Arthur's  palace  at 
Camelot.  The  mother  thinks  that  this  stipulation  will  pre- 
vent the  young  prince  from  leaving  the  home  of  his  father, 
King  Lot.  However,  he  leaves  home  and  serves  in  the  royal 
kitchen  until  one  day  Lynette  appears  at  Arthur's  court. 

She  asks  for  a  champion, 
Lancelot  (the  greatest 
of  Arthur's  knights),  if 
possible,  to  deliver  her 
sister  Lyonors,  who  is 
detained  against  her  will 
at  Castle  Perilous,  her 
own  home.  The  king, 
who  knows  that  Gareth 
is  no  kitchen  servant  by 
training,  sends  him  forth, 
much  to  the  disgust  of 
Lynette.  Gareth  over- 
throws four  knights,  and  I 
finds  Lynette' s  sister  safe 
at  her  castle.  Gareth 
and  Lynette,  who  have 
meantime  become  lovers, 
eventually  marry. 
Lancelot  and  Elaine  (1859).  —  Another  great  idyll  relates 
the  story  of  Elaine,  daughter  of  the  Lord  of  Astolat.  She 


By  G.  Don 

FIG.   122.  —  Elaine's    body    on    way    to 
King  Arthur's  Palace. 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


333 


loves  Lancelot,  a  brave  knight  who  is  already  interested  in 
Queen  Guinevere,  Arthur's  queen.  Leaving  his  shield  in 
care  of  Elaine,  Lancelot  rides  forth  with  her  brother  Lavaine 
to  fight  in  the  tournament  at  Camelot.  Lancelot  in  disguise 
wins  the  diamond  prize, 
is  wounded,  and  disap- 
pears. Sir  Gawain,  sent 
forth  by  the  king  to  find 
the  unknown  knight, 
stops  at  Astolat,  sees 
the  shield  of  Lancelot, 
and  leaves  the  diamond 
with  Elaine.  She  finds 
Lancelot,  her  love  is  re- 
jected, and  she  dies. 
Lancelot  presents  the 
diamond  with  other  gems 
to  Guinevere,  who  fancies 
that  Lancelot  loves 
Elaine.  Guinevere  hurls 
the  diamonds  into  the 
stream  at  the  very  mo- 
ment that  Elaine's  body  is 
being  carried  on  a  barge 
toward  Camelot.  When  the  body  is  carried  into  the  palace, 
King  Arthur  sees  "the  letter  in  her  hand/'  opens  it,  and 
begins  to  read.  Lancelot  is  smitten  with  remorse. 

The  Passing  of  Arthur  (1869).  —  Gawain's  ghost  appears  to 
King  Arthur  in  his  sleep,  warning  him  - 

Hail,  King  !  to-morrow  thou  shalt  pass  away. 
Farewell !  there  is  an  isle  of  rest  for  thee.  —  Stanza  3. 

Sir  Bedivere  urges  the  king  to  forget  the  dream  and  begin  an 
attack  upon  knights  who  were  unfaithful  to   their  vows. 


By  G.  Dore 

FIG.  123.  —  King  Arthur  reading  Elaine's 
letter. 


334  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Arthur  and  his  army  pursue  Modred  into  the  land  of  Lyonesse, 
where  a  terrible  battle  takes  place  in  the  winter's  mist  by  the 
seashore.  The  king  slays  Modred,  his  hostile  nephew,  and 
falls  mortally  wounded.  At  the  king's  request  Sir  Bedivere 
reluctantly  hurls  the  royal  sword  Excalibur  into  the  mere. 
A  black  barge  appears  and  King  Arthur  bids  Sir  Bedivere 
good-by.  Aboard  the  barge  the  king  says : 

Pray  for  my  soul.     More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 
Than  this  world  dreams  of.  —  248-249. 

Finally  the  barge  sails  with  Arthur  toward  the  island-valley 
of  Avilion. 

The  Most  Popular  Poems.  —  Tennyson's  son  in  memoirs 
of  his  father  considers  that,  besides  In  Memoriam,  the  most 
popular  poems  are  Enoch  Arden  (1864),  Aylmer's  Field,  The 
Grandmother,  Sea  Dreams,  The  Northern  Farmer,  Tithonus, 
and  The  Flower.  Few  people,  however,  will  readily  accept 
this  list  without  modification. 

In  reading  the  account  of  the  battle  of  Balaclava  (1854)  in 
the  London  Times,  Tennyson  found  there  the  phrase  "  some 
one  had  blundered,"  and  the  reporter's  phrase  was  the  origin 
of  the  metre  of  the  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade,  besides  fur- 
nishing the  poet  with  one  of  the  lines. 

It  was  in  1855  that  Maud  was  published.  It  is  the  story 
of  a  lover  who  serenades  the  squire's  daughter.  In  a  duel  her 
brother  is  slain  by  the  lover,  who  enlists  in  the  army  as  it  is 
about  to  start  for  the  Crimea,  in  southern  Russia.  The  poem 
is  a  protest  against  the  worship  of  wealth,  and  its  love-poetry 
is  melodious. 

The  Dramas.  —  Tennyson's  Idylls,  rich  in  many  respects, 
indicate  that  hejyas-not  highly  gifted  in  dramatic  skill  or  in 
portraying  complex  diversities  of  character.  This  is  more 
clearly  shown  in  such  dramas  as  Queen  Mary  (1875),  Harold 
(1877),  and  five  others.  The  poet  had  a  wonderful  mastery 


THE    VICTORIAN  PERIOD  335 

of  all  kinds  of  themes,  but  he  lacked  the  knowledge  of  stage- 
craft necessary  to  make  his  plays  a  success. 

Crossing  the  Bar.  —  In  1884  Tennyson  was  made  a  peer 
under  the  title  of  Baron  Tennyson  of  Aldworth  and  Farring- 
ford.  Among  his  latest  poems  were  Tiresias  (1885) ;  Locksley 
Hall  Sixty  Years  After  (1886),  which  is  influenced  by  the 
attitude  of  Carlyleand  Ruskin ;  Demeter  (1889) ;  and  Crossing 
the  Bar  (1890).  The  last  of  these  poems  is  one  of  the  choic- 
est, not  a  word  of  which  is  wasted.  Its  last  stanza  appears 
at  the  end  of  most  collections  of  the  poet's  works. 

For  tho'  from  out  our  bourne  of  Time  and  Place 

The  flood  may  bear  me  far, 
I  hope  to  see  my  Pilot  face  to  face 

When  I  have  crost  the  bar. 

On  the  sixth  of  October,  1892,  with  the  moon  shimmering 
on  the  near-by  copy  of  Shakespeare,  Tennyson  crossed  the 
bar.  To  use  the  phrase  that  he  coined  for  his  friend  Hallam 
in  the  In  Memoriam  — 

God's  finger  touched  him,  and  he  slept.  —  LXXXV. 

He  was  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey. 

Tennyson's  Place  in  Literature.  —  Tennyson  is  one  of  the 
most  polish  ef^Iym^poets-iflu  English .  For  cadences  and 
harmonies,  for  all  the  latent  music  of  our  language,  he  had  an 
instinct  that  recalls  Spenser  and  Keats.  Poems  such  as 
Ulysses,  Tithonus,  and  Lucretius,  suggest  many  a  stray  note 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  singers  who  could  make  their  lines 
mimic  the  song  of  the  thrush  or  thunder  with  the  deep  sym- 
phony of  a  storm  at  sea.  Tennyson  is  classical  in  the  lure  of 
his  technique,  while  he  is  modern  in  the  employment  or  ap- 
plication of  his  art. 

The  poet  has  not  smoothed  out  every  foot  of  every  line 
without  paying  the  penalty.  The  intense  humanity  of  Burns, 


336  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

the  cheery  vigor  of  Scott,  the  wit  and  dash  of  Byron,  are 
alien  to  the  typical  Tennysonian  poem.  More  than  once,  in 
watching  words  rather  than  ideas,  the  author  of  Maud 
lapses  into  lines  such  as  - 

The  white  lake-blossom  fell  into  the  lake 
As  the  pimpernel  dozed  on  the  lea. 

Great  poems  —  they  need  not  be  long  —  are  written  not 
to  be  pretty  or  popular,  but  because  they  leap  hot  from  the 
heart  of  a  singer  who  cannot  be  mute.  Lord  Tennyson 
resembled  Pope  in  being  the  most  popular  poet  of  his  time, 
and  we  can  scarcely  conceive  of  a  time  when  the  best  of  his 
work  will  sink  into  oblivion.  In  many  a  brilliant  epigram 
each  poet  uttered  the  opinions  of  his  age.  Whatever  is  truly 
classical  is  universal  in  its  appeal,  and  whatever  appeals  to 
most  men  and  women  is  not  easily  mangled  by  the  tooth  of 
Time. 

ROBERT  BROWNING  (1812-1889) 

Robert  Browning  was  born  at  Camberwell,  a  suburb  of 
London,  in  1812.  His  mother,  described  by  Carlyle  as  "  the 
true  type  of  a  Scottish  gentlewoman,"  contributed  mainly 
to  the  boy's  emotional  and  spiritual  life.  Except  for  a  brief 
term  at  the  University  of  London,  Browning's  education 
was  under  private  tutors  and  under  his  father  who  was  an 
ardent  book-lover  and  a  student  of  classical  literature. 
Though  he  lacked  the  systematic  training  of  Tennyson, 
many  books  were  in  his  father's  library,  and  even  in  his 
youth  he  had  read  books  of  which  many  older  people  had 
never  heard. 

Browning  had  the  good  sense  to  destroy  all  his  boyish 
verses,  so  that  the  first  poem  known  to  the  world  was  Pauline 
(1833).  This  is,  like  Shelley's  Alastor,  a  study  of  the  dan- 
gers that  assail  the  soul  of  a  poet.  Not  a  single  copy  was 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


337 


sold ;  but  he  had  better  luck  with  Paracelsus  (1835),  named 

after  a  Swiss  medical  thinker  (1490-1541),  who  determined 

to  become  the  greatest  and 

most  glorious  man  on  earth. 

It  is  a  lyrical  drama,  whose 

hero  represents  the  failure  of 

one  who  tries  to  serve  others 

by  knowledge  without  love. 

In  other  words,  it  shows  that 

we    must    reach    the    head 

through  the  heart.    The  third 

early  poem   also  gives  us  a 

peep    into    the   workings   of 

Browning's      fertile      brain. 

This  is  Sordello  (1840),  named 

after  a  poet   of   Italy.     No 

unknown  poet  could  hope  to 

catch  public   attention  with 

poems  so  long  and  so  serious. 

The  Dramas.  —  The  earli- 
est of  Browning's  dramas  was 
Stra/ord  (1837).  Others  were  Pippa  Passes  (1841),  King 
Victor  and  King  Charles  (1842),  Return  of  the  Druses  (1843), 
A  Blot  in  the  'Scutcheon  (1843),  Colombe's  Birthday  (1844), 
Luna  (1846),  Soul's  Tragedy  (1846),  In  a  Balcony  (1853). 

Most  of  the  plots,  not  probable  in  real  life,  were  invented 
by  the  poet.  They  are  keen  in  their  analysis  of  character, 
but  they  lack  action,  which  is  the  very  life-blood  of  a  play 
on  the  stage.  Above  all,  the  characters  speak  in  such  a  way 
that  it  is  difficult  to  follow  the  story  or  action  of  the  play. 
Of  these  dramas  or  dramatic  poems  Pippa  Passes  is  best 
known.  Browning  had  gone  to  Italy  in  1838,  and  found 
himself  in  the  little  town  of  Asolo  among  the  foothills  of  the 
Venetian  Alps.  This  town  is  the  background  of  five  scenes. 


FIG.  124.  —  Robert  Browning. 


338  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Pippa,  a  little  Italian  girl,  enjoys  only  one  holiday,  and  on 
this  day  she  goes  out  singing.  The  songs  reach  the  ears  of 
four  distinct  groups  of  people,  as  Pippa  passes  along,  and  in 
each  case  a  tempted  soul  is  encouraged  to  choose  good  rather 
than  evil. 

This  poetic  drama  sums  up  the  thought  that  Browning 
expresses  everywhere.  All  things,  no  matter  how  they  appear 
at  the  moment,  ultimately  work  together  for  good.  This  is 
his  gospel,  his  message  of  good  news,  the  faith  that  inspires 
him  with  manly  courage.  Here  it  is  in  the  simple  little  song 
from  Pippa  Passes: 

The  Year's  at  the  Spring ; 
The  Day's  at  the  morn  ; 
Morning's  at  seven ; 
The  hillside's  dew-pearled ; 
The  bee's  on  the  wing ; 
The  snail's  on  the  thorn : 
God's  in  his  heaven  — 
All's  right  with  the  world. 

Bells  and  Pomegranates.  —  The  foregoing  drama  was 
the  first  of  a  series  of  Browning's  works  entitled  Bells  and 
Pomegranates  (1841-1846).  The  title  is  founded  upon  a 
verse  in  the  Bible  (Exodus  xxviii.  33).  Later  the  poet 
explained  that  he  coined  the  title  because  it  stood  for  " 
mixture  of  music  with  discoursing,  sound  with  sense,  poetry 
with  thought."  Literally,  a  pomegranate  is  an  Oriental 
fruit. 

Under  this  general  title  eight  numbers  were  published, 
among  which  were  several  of  the  dramas  as  well  as  Dramatic 
Lyrics  (1842)  and  Dramatic  Lyrics  and  Romances  (1845). 
It  was  in  her  Lady  Geraldine's  Courtship  (1845)  that  Miss 
Barrett  made  a  complimentary  reference  to  the  Bells  and 
Pomegranates.  Through  her  cousin,  John  Kenyon,  Brown- 
ing met  the  lady  who  became  his  wife  in  1846. 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  339 

Dramatic  Lyrics  (1842).  — Among  the  dramatic  lyrics  are 
Cavalier  Tunes,  composed  by  a  descendant  of  Puritans, 
Incident  of  the  French  Camp,  and  My  Last  Duchess.  In  the 
Cavalier  Tunes  Browning  seeks  to  produce  the  same  effect  as 
did  Kipling  in  the  Barrack  Room  Ballads,  though,  of  course, 
Browning  wrote  before  Kipling  was  born.  They  are  rough, 
lively  songs  such  as  might  be  sung  by  Cavalier  soldiers  in 
the  days  of  Milton. 

The  Incident  of  the  French  Camp  tells  of  Napoleon's  siege 
(1809)  of  Ratisbon,  a  city  in  the  German  state  of  Bavaria. 
A  wounded  French  boy  brings  good  news  to  the  commander- 
in-chief ,  in  whom  all  his  soldiers  had  perfect  confidence.  This 
is  the  dramatic  finish : 

The  chiefs  eye  flashed ;  but  presently 

Softened  itself,  as  sheathes 
A  film  the  mother-eagle's  eye 

When  her  bruised  eaglet  breathes; 
"You're  wounded  ! "     "Nay,"  the  soldier's  pride 

Touched  to  the  quick,  he  said : 
"  I'm  killed,  sire."    And  his  chief  beside, 

Smiling  the  boy  fell  dead. 

/In  the  few  lines  of  My  Last  Duchess  the  poet  shows  us  a 
Dtike  of  Ferrara,  who  ought  never  to  have  been  born.  The 
scene  is  laid  in  the  nobleman's  Italian  palace  in  the  time  of 
the  Renaissance.  This  Duke  is  speaking  politely,  yet  in  a 
cold-blooded  way,  to  a  messenger  who  has  come  to  arrange 
for  a  new  duchess.  The  curtain  is  raised  from  the  picture  of 
the  last  duchess,  who  had  for  a  short  time  been  his  happy 
young  wife.  The  poem  is  a  masterly  study  of  character.  \ 

Dramatic  Lyrics  and  Romances.  —  No  poet  ever  loved 
horses  more  than  Browning.  Among  the  most  popular 
of  the  dramatic  lyrics  and  romances  of  1845  is  How  They 
Brought  the  Good  News  from  Ghent  to  Aix.  The  poet  under- 
stood each  gait  of  a  horse  so  well  that  the  rhythm  of  the  poem 


340  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

echoes  a  gallop,  distinct  enough  from  the  gait  of  the  third  of 
the  Cavalier  Tunes.  The  real  hero  of  this  narrative  poem  is 
the  good  horse  Roland,  which  is  represented  as  galloping 
from  Ghent  in  Belgium  to  Aix  or  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  Ger- 
many, a  distance  of  about  ninety  miles.  Although  the  ride 
is  supposed  to  have  taken  place  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
Browning  declared  it  had  no  historical  foundation. 

In  this  collection  are  three  other  familiar  poems  entitled 
Home  Thoughts  from  Abroad,  Home  Thoughts  from  the  Sea, 
and  The  Lost  Leader.  The  first,  written  during  the  poet's 
trip  to  Italy  in  1844,  indicates  homesickness;  the  second 
little  poem,  written  during  his  voyage  to  Italy  in  1838,  voices 
his  patriotism.  Of  The  Lost  Leader  Browning  confesses, 
"  I  undoubtedly  did  have  Wordsworth  in  my  mind  —  but 
simply  as  a  model."  In  other  words,  the  poem  is  not  a  pic- 
ture of  Wordsworth,  who  was  a  man  of  spotless  honor,  but 
of  any  man  who  changes  his  political  views  for  the  sake  of 
gain. 

Dramatic  Monologues.  —  In  1846  Browning  took  his  wife 
to  Italy,  where  they  lived  happily,  most  of  the  time  in  Flor- 
ence. In  1850  he  published  Christmas-Eve  and  Easter-Day, 
which  discusses  religious  problems.  Five  years  later  ap- 
peared Men  and  Women,  containing  dramatic  monologues 
such  as  were  published  in  1842  and  1845,  and  later  in  Drama- 
tis Personce  (1864). 

The  monologue,  or  speech  of  one  person,  is  very,  very  old  in 
the  history  of  literature,  but  Browning  gave  it  a  new  power 
by  using  it  as  a  means  of  revealing  a  man's  inner  life.  We 
noticed  this  in  My  Last  Duchess.  The  poet  makes  the  man 
so  real  to  the  imagination  of  his  readers  that  the  name  of 
Browning  will  always  be  linked  with  his  vivid  or  dramatic 
monologues. 

Browning  was  more  sociable  than  Tennyson,  and  enjoyed 
meeting  men  and  women,  A  humorous  monologue,  one  of 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  341 

those  in  Men  and  Women  (1855),  is  Up  at  a  Villa  —  Down 
in  the  City.  It  depicts  a  man  in  a  country  villa  who  craves 
city  excitement. 

Had  I  but  plenty  of  money,  money  enough  and  to  spare, 
The  house  for  me,  no  doubt,  were  a  house  in  the  city  square. 

Two  others  in  the  same  volume  are  The  Patriot,  a  study  of 
the  fickleness  of  the  mob,  and  "  De  Gustibus"  which  shows 
the  poet's  affection  for  England  and  Italy.  Its  title  is  part 
of  the  Latin  saying,  De  gustibus  non  disputandum,  There  is  no 
accounting  for  tastes. 

The  Ring  and  the  Book.  —  When  goldsmiths  wish  to  cut 
or  engrave  ornamental  designs  on  a  gold  ring,  they  can  cover 
it  with  a  coat  of  wax  or  varnish.  This  is  scratched  with  an 
etching-needle  in  whatever  designs  are  desired.  When 
the  ring  is  steeped  in  acid,  the  parts  exposed  by  the  needle 
are  bitten  or  eaten  by  the  acid.  When  the  wax  or  varnish  is 
removed,  the  pure  gold  is  revealed  with  its  beautiful  designs. 
Browning's  The  Ring  and  the  Book  (1868-1869)  has  its  title 
because  this  work,  the  most  thoughtful  of  all  English  poems, 
is  compared  to  a  ring.  The  acid,  as  it  were,  of  the  poet's 
brain  has  worked  to  bring  out  the  hidden  beauty  of  the  gold 
that  he  found  within  the  covers  of  an  old  book. 

In  a  market-stall  of  Florence,  Browning  found  the  book, 
which  gave  an  account  of  a  trial  before  the  Roman  courts. 
It  is  the  trial  of  a  certain  Count  Guido  of  Arezzo,  who  with 
his  four  servants  was  executed  in  1698  for  the  murder  of  his 
young  wife  Pompilia  and  her  adopted  parents,  Pietro  and 
Violante.  Count  Guido  has  married  Pompilia  in  the  belief 
that  she  is  an  heiress.  This  middle-aged  fortune-hunter 
makes  her  life  miserable  as  soon  as  he  learns  that  his  young 
wife  has  no  money.  Through  the  kindness  of  a  priest  she 
escapes  to  Rome.  The  husband  pursues,  and  she  is  placed  in 
a  convent,  from  which  she  is  set  free.  She  goes  to  her  foster- 


342  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

parents,  who  reside  in  a  lonely  Roman  suburb.  Her  husband 
again  hears  of  her  release,  and  taking  four  of  his  young  tenants 
or  farm-servants  with  him,  he  sets  out  for  his  wife's  residence. 
There  he  fatally  stabs  her  and  her  parents. 

The  poem  is  a  study  of  character.  The  most  interesting 
of  its  twelve  books  show  us  the  friendly  priest,  the  wife,  the 
murderer,  and  the  Pope.  Strongest  of  all  of  Browning's 
male  characters  is  the  aged  Pope  Innocent  XII.  Each  char- 
acter from  his  own  point  of  view  throws  new  light  upon  this 
story  of  spiritual  tragedy. 

Most  of  Browning's  verse  is  dramatic  in  the  sense  that  he 
delivers  it  through  the  mouth  of  an  imaginary  character.  In 
this  sense  The  Ring  and  the  Book  is  dramatic  —  a  vast  drama 
in  monologues,  assuring  us  that  there  is  redress  for  the 
wronged  beautiful  things  of  life. 

Later  Years.  —  Among  the  later  poems  is  Herve  Riel 
(1871),  the  fine  story  of  a  Breton  sailor  who  saved  the 
French  fleet  from  the  British  (1692)  by  steering  it  through 
a  narrow  passage  among  the  rocks,  where  the  British  could 
not  follow. 

See  the  noble  fellow's  face 
As  the  big  ship,  with  a  bound, 
Clears  the  entry  like  a  hound, 

Keeps  the  passage  as  its  inch  of  way  were  the  wide  sea's  pro- 
found ! 

See,  safe  thro'  shoal  and  rock, 

How  they  follow  in  a  flock. 

Another  familiar  poem  is  Pheidippides  (1879),  named  after 
its  hero,  who  is  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  the  Greek  historian. 
The  courageous  long-distance  runner  was  sent  from  Athens  to 
Sparta  (490  B.C.)  in  order  to  ask  help  when  the  Persians 
invaded  Greece. 

"  Greet  the  unseen  with  a  cheer  "  is  Browning's  advice  in 
the  epilogue  to  Asolando  (1889).  At  Venice  a  few  weeks 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


343 


later,  on  the  twelfth  of  December,  1889,  the  brave  spirit 
passed  cheerily  into  the  unseen  world.  His  remains  were 
placed  in  Westminster  Abbey.  In  the  words  of  the  epilogue, 
there  rests  — 

One  who  never  turned  his  back  but  marched  breast  forward, 

Never  doubted  clouds  would  break, 
Never  dreamed,  tho'  right  were  worsted,  wrong  would  triumph. 

Browning's   Place    in   Literature.  —  Browning    was    the 
greatest  realistic  .poet  of  the  Victorian  period  ;  that  is  to  say, 


FIG.   125.  —  "  After  him  the  children  pressed." 


By  J.  G.  Pinwell 
The  Pied  Piper. 


he  had  a  keen  sense  of  fact  and  presented  accurate  views  of 
real  life.  He  was  seldom  interested  in  nature  for  its  own 
sake,  as  were  Wordsworth,  Shelley,  and  Tennyson.  His 
chief  interest  lay  in  human  nature,  because,  like  Pope,  lie 
believed  that  "  the  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man." 

More  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  Browning  employed  a 
variety  of^nw*frp^  believing  that  the  measure  should  har- 
monize with  the  thought  of  the  poem.  In  his  insistence  upon 


344 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


the  rights  of  each  individual  he  was  democratic,  and  he  carried 
his  idea  so  far  that  at  times  he  leaves  his  readers  rather  puz- 
zled. He  was  a  rapid  thinker  and  often  swept  aside  the 
relative  pronouns,  conjunctions,  and  other  useful  little 
links  of  speech,  in  the  rush  with  which  he  poured  forth  his 
ideas. 

No  doubt  some  of  Browning's  poems  are  hard  to  under- 
stand, and  yet  many  are  simple  enough,  such  as  The  Italian 
in  England  and  Instans  Tyrannus.  Even  a  child  can  enjoy 
The  Pied  Piper  (1842).  Browning  will  be  remembered  for 
many  poems  that  give  a  clear  message  of  courage  and  happi- 
ness to  mankind,  a  message  like  that  in  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra: 

All  I  could  never  be, 
All,  men  ignored  in  me, 
This,  I  was  worth  to  God. 


MATTHEW  ARNOLD  (1822-1888) 


FIG.  126.  —  Matthew  Arnold. 


Almost  every  one  has  heard  of 
Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,  which 
was  written  by  Thomas  Hughes 
(1823-1896).  Tom  Brown  is  a 
clean,  manly  fellow  with  whom 
it  is  good  to  become  acquainted. 
He  attended  Rugby  at  a  time 
when  its  Head  Master  was  the 
famous  Dr.  Thomas  Arnold, 
father  of  Matthew  Arnold,  the 
poet  and  critic. 

Matthew  Arnold  was  born  at 
Laleham,    Middlesex,    in    1822^ 
He  was  an  excellent  student  at 
Balliol  College,  Oxford.    In  1851 
he     became    an    Inspector     of 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  345 

Schools,  a  position  which  he  held  until  three  years  before 
his  death.  His  was  a  most  arduous  life,  involving  the  cor- 
rection of  thousands  of  examination  papers.  He  wrote  his 
poems  when  he  had  a  little  leisure  in  the  evening. 

Poetic  Works.  —  Arnold  was  a  good  classical  scholar,  and 
all  his  literary  work  has  the  clearness  and  dignity  that  belong 
to  ancient  Greek  poetry.  His  poetry  is  different  in  tone 
from  his  prose,  each  showing  him  in  distinct  moods.  With 
the  exception  of  verses  such  as  Kaiser's  Dead  (1887),  a 
humorous  poem  whose  style  imitates  that  of  Burns,  Arnold's 
poems  are  inclined  to  be  pensive. 

His  first  verses  were  The  Strayed  Reveller  and  Other 
Poems  (1849).  This  collection  includes  The  Forsaken  Mer- 
man, a  poem  based  upon  a  legend  that  deals  with  the  mystery 
and  the  lure  of  the  ocean.  Arnold's  romantic  poem  is  an 
account  of  a  mortal  woman  who  lives  for  a  time  down  in 
the  sea-caverns,  but  one  day  she  forsakes  the  merman. 
Observe  the  simple^  dictioiL_and  the  lofty  imagination  of 
lines  such  as  - 

Children  dear,  was  it  yesterday 

We  heard  the  sweet  bells  over  the  bay? 

In  the  caverns  where  we  lay, 

Through  the  surf  and  through  the  swell, 

The  far-off  sounds  of  a  silver  bell  ? 

Sand-strewn  caverns,  cool  and  deep, 

Where  the  winds  are  all  asleep. 

Arnold  venerated  Oxford,  and,  like  Gray,  he  is,  to  a  certain 

extent,  a  college  poet,  though  his  poems  are  always  easy  to 

understand.     In  The  Scholar  Gipsy  with  pleasing  dignity  the 

poet  tells  of  one  who,  among  a  primitive  people,  sought  refuge 

|  from  the  petty  annoyances  of  civilization.     Thyrsis^is  an_ 

I  elegy   on   the   poet's   old   college  friend  and   brother-poet, 

Arthur  Hugh  Clough  (1819-1861).     It  is  not  unworthy  of 

comparison  with  Milton's  Lycidas  and  Shelley's  Adonais, 


346 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


FIG.  127.  —  Dover  Beach  and  Cliffs. 


Sohrab  and  Rustum.  —  Among  the  best  of  Arnold's  poems 
are  Sohrab  and  Rustum  (1853),  Balder  Dead  (1855),  and 
Dover  Beach  (1867). 

The  first  is  based  upon  a  story  in  the  Persian  epic  Shah 
Nameh  (Book  of  Kings).  Rustum  is  a  hero  of  Persian 

legend.  In  Arnold's  Soh- 
rab and  Rustum  the  open- 
ing scene  shows  Sohrab 
in  the  early  morning 
passing  through  the  TarK 
ars'  camp,  which  is  beside 
the  river  Oxus  in  Turk- 
estan, east  of  the  Caspian 
Sea.  Sohrab  suggests  to 
his  commander  that  he 
be  allowed  to  challenge 
any  champion  of  the 
enemy,  the  Persians.  He  has  been  looking  for  his  father, 
Rustum,  whom  he  has  never  seen,  nor  does  the  father  know 
that  he  has  a  son.  Indeed,  Rustum  has  been  informed  that 
it  was  a  daughter  that  was  born  to  him.  When  the  cham- 
pions meet,  Rustum  feels  sorry  for  the  young  stranger  with 
whom  he  is  to  fight,  and  urges  him  to  leave  the  other  army 
and  become  his  adopted  son.  Sohrab's  answer  is  — 

I  am  young  — 

But  yet  success  sways  with  the  breath  of  Heaven, 
And  though  thou  thinkest  that  thou  knowest  sure 
Thy  victory,  yet  thou  canst  not  surely  know, 
For  we  are  all,  like  swimmers  in  the  sea, 
Poised  on  the  top  of  a  huge  wave  of  fate, 
Which  hangs  uncertain  to  which  side  to  fall. 
And  whether  it  will  heave  us  up  to  land, 
Or  whether  it  will  roll  us  out  to  sea, 
Back  out  to  sea,  to  the  deep  waves  of  death, 
We  know  not.  —  386-396. 


THE  V1CTOH1AN  PERIOD  347 

The  rest  of  the  story  may  be  learned  by  reading  the  poem. 
With  its  epic  dignity  and  its  lyric  passion  it  is  Arnold's  finest 
poetic  production. 

Balder  Dead.  —  Arnold  was  patriotic,  but  his  patriotism 
was  like  that  of  Scott  and  Browning.  He  had  too  much  com- 
mon sense  to  believe  that  all  good  things  are  to  be  found  in 
any  one  country.  Gray  was  the  first  noted  poet  who  took  an 
interest  in  the  Old  Norse  myths,  and  Scott  more  than  once 
wrote  about  Norse  valor  on  sea  and  land.  Arnold,  a  man 
who  enjoyed  the  strong  literature  of  any  country,  was  also 
attracted  to  Icelandic  or  Old  Norse  traditions.  His  Balder 
Dead  relates  the  story  of  Balder,  who  was  the  son  of  Odin  and 
god  of  the  summer  sunlight.  This  original  poem,  revealing 
the  gentler  phase  of  the  Northland,  has  a  message  for  our 
present  civilization.  Balder  says  to  his  brothers  that  there 
is  — 

In  your  life 

Something  too  much  of  war  and  broils,  which  make 

Life  one  perpetual  fight,  a  bath  of  blood. 

Mine  eyes  are  dizzy  with  the  arrowy  hail ; 

Mine  ears  are  stunn'd  with  blows,  and  sick  for  calm. 

—  Funeral,  Section  III,  504. 

Prose  Works.  —  Arnold  believed  that  poetry  should  be 
"  a  criticism  of  life  " ;  that  is,  it  should  present  the  real 
meaning  of  man's  life  upon  earth.  From  1857  to  1867  he 
was  Professor  of  Poetry  at  Oxford,  and  there  it  was  that 
he  delivered  his  Lectures  on  Translating  Homer  (1861). 
The  volume  entitled  Essays  in  Criticism  (1865,  1888)  sug- 
gests that  "We  have  to  turn  to  poetry  to  interpret  life 
for  us."  According  to  Arnold,  culture  means  "  setting 
ourselves  to  ascertain  what  perfection  is  and  to  make  it 
prevail." 

Among  other  notable  prose  works  are  Celtic  Literature 
(1867),  Culture  (tud  Anarchy  (1869),  and  Discourses  in 


348  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

America  (1885).  Arnold's  poetry  is  usually  serious,  whereas 
in  his  beautiful  prose  he  sometimes  utters  the  opposite  of 
what  he  means.  In  other  words,  his  humor  takes  the  form 
of  irony.  Even  when  we  cannot  agree  with  his  opinions,  he 
is  always  attractive  and  instructive  by  reason  of  the  clear- 
ness and  distinction  of  his  style. 

Arnold's  Place  in  Literature.  —  Arnold  was  undoubtedly 
the  most  eminent  literary  critic  of  his  age.  His  poetry  has 
lucidity,  serene  dignity,  and  beauty  of  diction  wedded  to 
real  thought.  In  order  to  understand  either  his  verse  or  his 
prose,  we  need  to  remember  that,  about  the  middle  of  the 
Victorian  period,  many  good  people  were  troubled  because 
of  the  apparent  conflict  between  science  and  religion. 
Charles  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species  (1859)  caused  much  dis- 
cussion. These  discussions  for  a  time  brought  doubt  to 
Tennyson  and  Arnold,  while  they  merely  confirmed  the 
joyous  hopefulness  that  gleams  in  Browning's  poetry 
Arnold's  works  will  always  be  a  valuable  index  to  the  tone 
of  English  thought  during  the  third  quarter  of  the  nine 
teenth  century. 


DANTE  GABRIEL  ROSSETTI  (1828-1882) 

The  Pre-Raphaelite  Movement.  —  In  1848  a  number  o 
artists  met  in  London,  and  founded  what  they  termed  the 
Pre-Raphaelite  Brotherhood.     They  were  not  opposed   to 
Raphael,  the  great  Italian  artist.     They  simply  wished  to 
make  art  more  natural,  more  sincere,  and  they  believec 
they  could   achieve  this   result   by   reviving   the   freedom 
which  they  observed  in  Raphael's  predecessors.     In  an  age 
of  religious  doubt  one  of  their  aims  was  to  depict  the  rev 
erence  and  awe  which  inspire  medieval  painting.     Many 
critics  jeered  at  the  ideas  of  these  young  painters  unti 
Ruskin,  the  noted  art  critic,  came  to  their  defence  in  his 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


349 


Pre-Raphaelitism  (1851).  The  term  Pre-Raphaelitism  was 
extended  from  painting  to  literature,  where  it  represents 
a  phase  of  the  romantic  element  in  literature.  One  of  the 
founders  of  the  Pre-Raphaelite  Brotherhood  was  a  young 
poet  and  painter  named  Rossetti.  He  and  two  other 
painters,  William  Holman  Hunt  and  John  Millais,  were 
the  first  to  reveal  the  aims  of  the  new  movement  through 
their  pictures. 

Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti,  whose  Italian  father  enjoyed  the 
study  of  Dante,  was  born  at  London  in  1828.  Even  in 
childhood  he  liked  to  read  Dante,  to  write  verses,  and  to 
draw.  He  became  a  student  of  painting,  attaining  distinc- 
tion by  the  originality  of  his  designs  and  the  naturalness  of 
his  coloring.  He  chose  his  themes  from  religion  and  romance. 
His  paintings  were 
those  of  a  poet,  and 
his  poems  those  of  a 
painter.  The,  picto^ 
^jial  style  marks  all 
his  waitings. 

In  his  eighteenth 
year  The  Blessed 
Damozelw&s  printed. 
Poe's  The  Raven 
(1845),  the  familiar 
American  poem, 
treats  of  the  sorrow 
of  the  bereaved 
lover  on  earth,  whereas  Rossetti  portrays  in  simple  pic- 
torial language  the  longing  of  the  loved  one  in  heaven. 
The  damsel  looks  down  from  the  golden  barrier  of  the 
heavenly  city.  Ten  years  have  passed  since  she  left  the 
earth,  and  she  waits  to  meet  the  lover  and  teach  him  holy 
songs.  She  waits  in  vain  - 


Detail  from  the  painting  by  Dante  Gabriel  Rossetti 
FIG.  128.  —  The  Blessed  Damozel. 


350  ENGLISH  LITER  A  TUBE 

And  then  she  cast  her  arms  along 

The  golden  barriers, 
And  laid  her  face  between  her  hands, 

And  wept. 

Lyric  and  Narrative  Poems.  —  The  Early  Italian  Poets 
(1861)  shows  Rossetti's  power  as  a  translator.  Next  came 
Poems  (1870)  followed  by  Ballads  and  Sonnets  (1881). 

The  lyric  group  includes  The  House  of  Life,  a  title  borrowed 
from  astrology.  It  is  a  series  of  a  hundred  and  one  sonnets 
wherein  lifejs  interpreted  in  terms  of  love.  They  reveal 
a  new  type  of  word-music,  and  a  style  that  suggests  to  some 
readers  either  Blake  or  Keats. 

The  narrative  poems  are  largely  imitations  of  old  ballads, 
though  they  lack  the  plainness  of  the  real  traditional  ballad. 
They  possess  color,  passion,  and  mystery.  Perhaps  the 
finest  is  The  King's  Tragedy,  a  poem  which  describes  the 
splendid  heroism  of  Catherine  Douglas,  the  maiden  who 
used  her  arm  as  a  bolt,  and  suffered  it  to  be  broken  in 
order  to  give  James  I  of  Scotland  (author  of  the  Kingis 
Quair)  a  chance  to  escape  from  assassins.  Other  notable 
ballads  are  The  White  Ship  and  The  Staff  and  Scrip. 

Though  the  amount  of  Rossetti's  poetry  is  not  great,  it  is 
conspicuous  for  its  sense  of  form  and  its  power  of  vision. 

CHRISTINA  ROSSETTI  (1830-1894) 

It  was  in  1862  that  Christina  Rossetti,  the  sister  of  the 
poet  Rossetti,  published  in  irregular  rimed  lines  Goblin  Market 
and  Other  Poems.  The  poem  named  is  a  narrative  of  the 
love  of  two  sisters  residing  in  the  country.  It  is  a  sort  of 
fairy  tale. 

Miss  Rossetti's  religious  poems  have  sincerity  and  beauty 
of  form.  It  is  mainly  in  her  sense  of  form  that  she  is  su- 
perior to  Mrs.  Browning.  In  the  series  of  fourteen  sonnets, 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


351 


Monna  Innominata  (Lady  Unnamed),  is  revealed  a  subtle 
interpretation  of  the  inner  life.  A  clear  vision  of  the  un- 
seen, a  high  seriousness,  a  haunting  beauty,  are  among  the 
qualities  of  this  gifted  poetess.  At  the  close  of  the  eleventh 
sonnet  she  says  much  in  two  lines  - 

I  charge  you  at  the  Judgment  make  it  plain 
My  love  of  you  was  life  and  not  a  breath. 

WILLIAM  MORRIS  (1834-1896) 

Another  of  the  Pre-Raphaelite  Brotherhood  was  William 
Morris,  who  was  born  at  Walthamstow,  near  London,  in 
1834.  While  a  student 
at  Oxford  his  romantic 
tendertcy  was  seen  in  his 
friendship  with  Sir  Ed- 
ward Burne  Jones,  who 
brought  back  to  painting 
some  of  the  tenderness 
and  spirituality  of  Botti- 
celli. Visits  to  France 
filled  Morris  with  admi- 
ration of  medieval  archi- 
tecture. Un3~ST — ttos^ 
setti's  influence  he 
"  sought  to  reach  through 
Art  the  forgotten  world 
of  old  romance/7 

In  his  twenty-fourth 
year  he  published  The 
Defence  of  Guenevere  and  Other  Poems.  Responsive  both 
to  color  and  to  sound,  these  poems  portray  the  aspira- 
tion of  their  author.  The  eerie  element  in  them  reminds 
us  at  times  of  Shelley.  Among  the  more  notable  crea- 


Photo  by  Elliot  and  Fry 
FIG.   129.  —  William  Morris. 


852  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tions  are  The  Haystack  in  the  Floods,  The  Sailing  of  the 
Sword,  and  The  Blue  Closet,  the  last  of  which  was  written 
to  interpret  a  water-color  painting  by  Rossetti.  In  this 
stanza  of  The  Sailing  of  the  Sword,  notice  the  ballad  style 
as  modified  first  by  Rossetti : 

O,  russet  brown  and  scarlet  bright, 

When  the  Sword  went  out  to  sea, 
My  sisters  wore ;  I  wore  but  white ; 

Red,  brown,  and  white  are  three ; 
Three  damozels ;  each  had  a  knight, 

When  the  Sword  went  out  to  sea. 

Decorative  Art.  —  Morris  employed  his  deep  insight  into 
the  past  in  order  to  meet  the  actual  needs  of  the  present. 
He  tried  to  beautify  modern  life  by  enriching  poetry  with 
the  romantic  atmosphere  of  bygone  days.  He  worked  with 
his  own  hands  as  a  designer,  putting  his  heart  into  his  work 
and  producing  objects  which  no  machine  can  ever  duplicate. 
In  1861  he  opened  a  shop  in  London  for  the  sale  of  decorative 
art  —  artistic  wall-paper,  furniture,  stained  glass,  etc.  His 
aim  was  to  transform  English  homes  by  making  them  more 
like  the  beautiful  past.  He  started  the  Kelmscott  press  in 
order  to  reform  modern  printing.  He  introduced  the  idea 
of  putting  beautiful  thoughts  into  beautiful  books.  It  is  the 
influence  of  Morris  that  has  transformed  so  many  school- 
rooms, creating  a  desire  for  harmonious  color  on  walls  and 
ceiling,  and  bringing  home  the  need  for  noble  pictures 
rather  than  bare  prison-like  walls.  0 His  influence  in  house- 
hold art,  in  school  improvement,  in  literary  art,  has  reached 
most  parts  of  Europe  and  America,  j 

The  Earthly  Paradise. —  It  was  in  1866  that  Morris 
published  The  Life  and  Death  of  Jason,  wherein  he  relates 
the  old  Greek  story  of  the  Golden  Fleece.  It  is  told  in  the 
manner  of  Chaucer,  imitating  his  spirit  as  well  as  his  versi- 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  353 

fication.  It  is  less  favorably  known  than  the  volumes  of 
The  Earthly  Paradise  (1868-1870),  the  purpose  of  which  is 
stated  thus :  ~ 

Folk  say,  a  wizard  to  a  northern  king 
At  Christmas-tide  such  wondrous  things  did  show, 
That  through  one  window  men  beheld  the  spring, 
And  through  another  saw  the  summer  glow, 
And  through  a  third  the  fruited  vines  a-row, 
While  still,  unheard,  but  in  its  wonted  way, 
Piped  the  drear  wind  of  that  December  day. 

So  with  this  Earthly  Paradise  it  is, 
If  ye  will  read  aright. 

Sigurd  the  Volsung.  —  The  poets  Gray,  Scott,  and  Arnold 
had  been  attracted  by  Old  Norse  or  Icelandic  stories  or  sagas, 
but  Morris  had  a  deeper  interest  in  Iceland  than  any  of  his 
predecessors.  Sigurd  the  Volsung  (1877)  is  a  poem  of  more 
than  nine  thousand  lines.  It  presents  the  legend  of  Sigurd, 
the  grandson  of  King  Volsung,  who  was  supposed  to  be 
a  descendant  of  Odin,  the  chief  god  of  Norse  mythology. 
Sigurd  is  the  lover  of  Brynhild,  and  both  endure  many 
trials. 

Later  Years.  —  Besides  translations  Morris  published 
Poems  by  the  Way  (1891),  presenting  pictures  of  the  life  of 
his  own  time.  The  poet  in  his  later  years  became  dissatisfied 
with  the  luxury  and  the  poverty  of  modern  society,  and  he 
became  a  sociaL jgformer .  His  Poems  by  the  Way  is  a 
volume  that  sympathizes jwith  the :  toiling  masses. 

Morris  was  the  most  versatile  of  the  Pre-Raphaelite  poets. 
Long  poems  were  not  so  much  appreciated  during  the  Vic- 
torian period  as  in  earlier  times,  and  the  poet  is  not  always 
as  clear  as  modern  taste  demands.  He  will  long  be  remem- 
bered for  his  ennobling  influence  upon  art  in  general. 


2A 


354  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

ALFRED  AUSTIN  (1835-1913) 

If  e'er  in  my  verse  lurks  tender  thought, 

'Twas  borrowed  from  cushat  (dove)  or  blackbird's  throat ; 
If  sweetness  any,  'twas  culled  or  caught 

From  boughs  that  blossom  and  clouds  that  float. 

This  is  a  stanza  from  Austin's  prelude  to  Soliloquies  in 
Song.  Alfred  Austin  was  born  at  Headingly,  near  Leeds. 
He  took  his  degree  at  the  University  of  London  in  1853, 
and  two  years  later  he  was  called  to  the  bar.  He  cared  little 
for  legal  studies  and  published  his  first  volume  of  verse,  The 
Season,  in  1861.  Among  many  volumes  may  be  named  The 
Golden  Age  (1871),  Madonna's  Child  (1873),  and  Savonarola 
(1881),  a  tragedy. 

As  a  poet  Austin's  chief  characteristics  are  love  of  country 
and  love  of  the  country.  Patriotism  is  a  prevailing  note  in 
much  of  his  verse.  In  the  sonnet,  Written  in  Mid-Channel, 
he  enjoys  the  sleet  of  a  March  day  after  being  in  sunny 
Italy  - 

And,  gazing  through  the  mist  with  misty  eyes, 
Blesses  the  brave  bleak  land  where  he  was  born. 

In  1896,  .four  years  after  Tennyson's  death,  Austin  be- 
came poet  laureate,  a  position  which  he  held  for*sevenfeen 
years. 

ALGERNON  CHARLES  SWINBURNE  (1837-1909) 

Algernon  Charles  Swinburne,  son  of  Admiral  Swinburne, 
was  a  Londoner.  From  Eton  he  went  in  1856  to  Balliol 
College^  .Oxford,  where  he  was  an  associate  of  the  gifted 
John  Nichol,  who  later  became  Professor  of  English  Litera- 
ture at  the  University  of  Glasgow.  Among  his  college  friends 
were  Rossetti  and  Morris,  the  two  other  Pre-Raphaelite 
poets.  In  1861  he  was  in  Italy,  where  he  visited  Landor 
the  essayist. 


THE    VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


355 


The    Dramas.  —  Swinburne's 

first  volume  of  verse  contained 

two  tragedies,  The  Queen  Mother 

(Catherine      de     Medici),     and 

Rosamond  (1860).     These, 

along    with    Chastelard    (1865), 

Bothwell     (1874),     and      Mary 

Stuart     (1881),     constitute    his 

romantic     dramas.      Swinburne 

was  influenced   greatly   by    the 

methods    of    Victor  Hugo,    the 

French  novelist  and  dramatist. 

The    last    three    plays    form    a 

trilogy,    that    is,  three    dramas 

presenting    different    phases    of 

one  historical   picture.     Most   readers   are   careful  not  to 

accept    Swinburne's    plays    as    true    to   history.     Neither 

Mary  Stuart,  Queen  of  Scots, 
nor  Mary  Beaton  was  in 
love  with  Chastelard,  the 
French  poet,  so  that  these 
and  other  errors  convey  a 
wrong  impression  of  the 
history  of  the  sixteenth 
century. 

Swinburne's  Atalanta  in 
Calydon  (1865)  and  Erectheus 
(1S70)  are  dramas  of  clas- 
sical rather  than  romantic 
type.  Their  author  was  an 
accomplished  Greek._scholar, 
and  this  partly  accounts  for 
prom  a  printing  his  admiration  of  Greek 

FIG.  131.  — Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,      ideals  such  as  attention   to 


FIG.    130.  —  Algernon    Charles 
Swinburne. 


356  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

artistic  form.  Atalanta,  however,  like  most  of  his  other 
dramas,  is  too  long ;  also  it  is  too  impassioned,  too  hostile 
to  religion,  to  convey  the  serenity  of  ancient  drama. 
Better  known  than  any  of  his  other  dramas,  it  shows 
great  variety  and  originality  of  rhythm,  especially  in 
the  splendor  of  the  choruses.  The  blank  verse  is  truly 
harmonious.  These  dramas  are  not  for  playgoers,  but  for 
readers. 

Lyric  and  Narrative  Verse.  — The  magic,  the  guise,  the 
passion  of  music,  are  in  Swinburne's  choicest  lyrics,  anoTfnore 
or  less  in  all  his  verse,  yet  too  often  he  lacks  the  spiritual 
fire  which  glows  in  poetry  that  is  supremeTTle^MajHbe 
compared  with  Byron  as  a  master  singer  of  the  sea  and  of 
childhood.  In  a  Forsaken  Garden  (1876)  he  tells  that  — 

Here  there  was  laughing  of  old,  there  was  weeping, 

Haply,  of  lovers  none  ever  will  know, 
Whose  eyes  went  seaward  a  hundred  sleeping  years  ago. 

Tristram  of  Lyonesse  (1882)  is  the  best  of  his  narrative 
poems. 

Prose  Writing.  —  Swinburne,  as  his  prose  works  show, 
had  an  excellent  knowledge  of  literature,  but  his  impulsive- 
ness at  times  led  him  to  be  imprudent  in  speech.  Had  he 
been  able  to  cultivate  a  sense  of  humor,  his  occasional  poor 
taste  in  both  verse  and  prose  might  not  have  marred  the 
reader's  pleasure.  He  was  inclined  to  look  on  the  dark  side 
of  life.  Essays  and  Studies  (1875)  and  The  Age  of  Shakespeare 
(1908)  give  a  clear  idea  of  his  powers  and  limits  as  a  critic. 
Swinburne  received  the  Nobel  prize  in  1908,  the  year  before 
hlslleath.  It  is  the  best  of  his  melodious  lyrics  that  entitle 
him  to  a  place  of  honor  in  literary  history. 


THE   VICTOEIAN  PERIOD  357 


JOHN  DAVIDSON  (1857-1909) 

John  Davidson,  a  Scotsman  from  Renfrewshire,  was  a 
schoolmaster,  in  early  life,  with  a  taste  for  chemistry.  In 
1890  he  gave  up  teaching  in  order  to  become  a  journalist 
and  a  man  of  letters.  His  earliest  work,  An  Unhistorical 
Pastoral  (1877),  was  published  at  Glasgow.  Davidson's 
Bruce  (1884)  and  Smith  (1886)  are  to  some  extent  imitations 
of  Shakespeare.  The  poet  knew  little  about  the  needs  of 
the  stage,  yet  these  plays  reveal  wit  and  imagination.  Hal- 
lowes,  one  of  the  characters  in  Smith,  seems  to  be  something 
like  Davidson  himself,  as  he  explains : 

Give  me  to  dream  dreams  all  would  love  to  dream : 
To  tell  the  world's  truth ;  hear  the  world  tramp  time 
With  satin  slippers  and  with  hob-nailed  shoes 
To  my  true  singing ;  fame  is  worth  its  cost, 
Blood-sweats,  and  tears,  and  haggard  homeless  lives.1 

Davidson's  wort^as  a  poet  is  junegual.  Like  Arnold  and 
Swinburne,  he  lost  interest  in  some  of  the  beliefs  of  his  child- 
hood, one  of  the  effects  produced  by  the  conflict  between 
scientific  theorists  and  the  defenders  of  religious  faith. 
Among  Davidson's  books  of  poetry  may  be  mentioned 
Ballads  and  Songs  (1894),  New  Ballads  (1897),  and  The  Last 
Ballad  and  Other  Poems  (1899).  These  and  his  Fleet  Street 
Eclogues  (1893)  comprise  most  of  his  best  work.  The  diction 
is  rich  and  vital,  and  the  style  is  clear  and  vigorous,  although 
occasionally  the  metre  is  rugged.  Sometimes  downcast, 
partly  by  reason  of  poverty  and  poor  health,  Davidson  in 
the  introduction  to  New  Ballads  gives  a  clew  to  his  own 
nature : 

Some  said,  "  He  was  strong."    He  was  weak; 
For  he  never  could  sing  or  speak 

1  By  permission  of  John  Lane  Company.  ' 


358  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Of  the  things  beneath  or  the  things  above, 
Till  his  soul  was  touched  by  death  or  love. 

Some  said,  "  He  was  weak. "     They  were  wrong ; 

For  the  soul  must  be  strong 

That  can  break  into  song 

Of  the  things  beneath  and  the  things  above, 

At  the  stroke  of  death,  at  the  touch  of  love.1 

FRANCIS  THOMPSON  (1860-1907) 

Francis  Thompson,  whose  father  in  vain  urged  him  to 
study  for  the  church,  was  a  native  of  Preston.  After  spend- 
ing his  youth  in  Lancashire,  he  settled  in  London,  where, 
like  Davidson,  he  endured  for  a  time  the  bitterness  of  extreme 
poverty.  He  resembled  Blake  in  being  a  mystic,  a  man  of 
visions.  For  instance,  in  his  celebrated  Haunai^  Heaven 
(1893),  a  poem  based  upon  Psalm  cxxxix.  7-10,  the  intro- 
ductory lines  declare  - 

I  fled  Him,  down  the  nights  and  down  the  days  ; 
I  fled  Him,  down  the  arches  of  the  years ; 
I  fled  Him,  down  the  labyrinthine  ways 

Of  my  own  mind,  and  in  the  mist  of  tears 
I  hid  from  Him.1 

Thompson  appeals  largely  to  those  who  love  poetry  for 
its  own  sake,  for  its  imagery  and  its  splendid  diction,  and 
in  the  fine  prose  of  his  essays  he  often  shows  that  discern- 
ment and  sense  of  reality  which  we  expect  in  a  competent 
critic.  Unusual  words,  unusual  uses  of  words,  sometimes 
mar  the  enjoyment  of  his  word-music.  One  of  his  volumes  is 
Sister  Songs  (1895).  Toward  the  uncanny  close  of  A  Foretell- 
ing of  the  Child's  Husband  in  Sister  Songs,  Thompson  writes  — 

I  have  caught  you  fast  for  ever  in  a  tangle  of  sweet  rhymes. 
And  in  your  young  maiden  morn 
You  may  scorn.1 

1  By  permission  of  John  Lane  Company. 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


359 


2.   PROSE   WRITERS 

THOMAS  CARLYLE  (1795-1881) 

In  its  grimness,  in  its  frequent  appearance  of  gravity,  the 
humor  of  certain  parts  of  Scotland  resembles  that  of  Norway 
rather  than  England. 
"  One  of  the  saddest  of 
all  the  sons  of  Adam/' 
Carlyle  calls  himself,  and 
yet  if  we  fail  to  see  that 
he  is  at  times  a  humorist, 
we  shall  scarcely  appre- 
ciate certain  passages  of 
his  writings.  Alluding 
to  his  own  family  tree, 
he  gravely  explains  that 
one  of  his  ancestors  was 
hanged  for  cattle-steal- 
ing, "  my  remotest  out- 
look into  the  past." 


FIG.  132.  — Thomas  Carlyle. 


Again,    he    SayS    that    his         fom  the  painting  by  Whistler,  Glasgow  Art  Galleries 

father,  who  was  a  stone- 
mason  and  farmer, 
"  walked  as  a  man  in 
the  presence  of  heaven, 
and  hell,  and  the  judgment/7  especially  the  two  latter. 
It  is  a  peculiar  humor  that  underlies  his  spells -oiLgloom. 
The  reader,  who  may  here  and  there  see  sympathy  under 
-his  sarcasm,  will  also  find  tenderness  at  the  root  of  his  in- 
dignation. His  sardonic  laughter  was  at  times  but  another 
form  of  weeping,  the  outcome  of  that  humor  without  whose 
kindly  relief  men  of  strong  moral  earnestness  would  find 
life's  follies  rather  burdensome. 


360 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


The  upper  window  on  the  right  belon 
which  Carlyle  was  born 


?  to  the  room  in 


FIG.  133.  — Birthplace  of  Carlyle. 


In  1795  Thomas  Carlyle  was  born  at  Ecclefechan,  sixteen 
miles   from  Dumfries,  the  town  which  witnessed  Burns's 

death  the  following  year. 
After  attending  school  at 
Annan,  young  Carlyle 
went  to  the  University 
of  Edinburgh.  He  be- 
came especially  proficient 
in  mathematics,  and  also 
became  a  victim  of 
chronic  dyspepsia,  an  ail- 
ment which  tended  to 
make  him  irritable.  For 
a  while  he  was  a  teacher, 
and  all  the  time  he  was  steadily  working  out  for  himself  the 
religious  problems  for  which  he  sought  solution.  His  parents 
had  destined  him  for  the  church,  but  he  preferred  literature. 
Interest  in  German  Literature.  — Among  Carlyle's  earlier 
works  were  a  translation  of  Goethe's  Wilhelm  Meister  (1824) 
and  a  Life  of  Schiller  (1825).  Other  works  relating  to  Ger- 
many appeared  later.  It  was  Carlyle  who  first  interpreted 
the  literature  of  Germany  to  the  people  of  Britain.  No  doubt 
Coleridge,  Scott,  and  Shelley  had  published  translations,  but 
they  made  little  impression.  Even  Francis  Jeffrey,  the 
accomplished  editor  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  did  not 
realize  that  Germany  possessed  the  most  spiritual  literature 
in  modern  Europe.  Goethe,  however,  was  quick  to  rec- 
ognize that  this  young  Scotsman  would  do  full  justice 
to  the  Fatherland.  When  clouds  of  religious  doubt  had 
darkened  the  sky,  Carlyle  found  solace  and  satisfaction  in 
German  thought,  and  more  than  once  he  expressed  his 
gratitude. 

Carlyle's  Insight.  —  In  1826  Carlyle  married  Jane  Welsh, 
the  brilliant  daughter  of  a  surgeon  in  Haddington.     They 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  361 

retired  to  Craigenputtock,  a  small  Dumfriesshire  estate 
nestling  among  trees  in  the  Galloway  moors,  far  from  the 
roar  of  the  busy  world  that  lies  beyond  the  swelling  hills  of 
granite.  There  in  1833  he  was  visited  by  Emerson,  the 
distinguished  essayist  and  poet,  who  made  Carlyle  known  to 
Americans.  In  this  lonely  farm,  fifteen  miles  from  the 
spot  where  Burns's  remains  are  lying,  Carlyle  wrote  his 
well-known  Essay  on  Burns  (1828).  This  essay  is  of  in- 
terest because  (1)  it  is  written  in  a  simpler  style  than  most 
of  the  later  works,  (2)  it  is  an  estimate  of  one  great  writer 
by  another,  (3)  Carlyle,  like  Burns,  possessed  sincerity  and 
the  ability  to  see  under  life's  surface  from  the  angle  that 
was  made  for  him  by  training  and  temperament. 

In  a  private  journal  kept  by  Carlyle  at  Craigenputtock 
in  1829,  we  find  him  writing  —  "  Without  love  there  is  no 
knowledge."  This  sentence  lays  bare  the  motive-power 
which  helped  to  give  its  writer  a  commanding  place  in  English 
literature.  He  found  something  to  esteem  in  characters  as 
diverse  as  Mahomet  and  Napoleon.  It  was  he  who  first 
rendered  justice  to  Boswell,  the  biographer  of  Johnson,  and 
he  presented  Oliver  Cromwell  in  a  new  light  to  the  world's 
readers. 

Sartor  Resartus.  —  An  original  treatment  of  a  quaint 
subject  is  Sartor  Resartus  (The  Tailor  Repatched),  which 
professes  to  be  a  philosophy  or  explanation  of  clothes.  It 
first  appeared  as  a  series  of  articles  in  Eraser's  Magazine 
(1833-1834).  Carlyle  is  opposed  to  the  old  clothes  of  sham 
and  falsehood  that  conceal  a  divine  idea.  With  grim  humor 
and  earnestness  he  teaches  that  nature  is  the  garment  behind 
which  is  God.  It  is  not  fine  raiment  or  outward  show  that 
makes  a  man,  but  high  character  and  love  of  truth.  The 
hero  is  supposed  to  be  a  German  professor,  but  the  book  is 
really  an  account  of  Carlyle's  own  experiences,  written  in  an 
emphatic  racy  style. 


362 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


In  the  chapter  entitled  "  The  Everlasting  Yea/'  Carlyle 
writes  :  "  Love  not  pleasure ;  love  God.  This  is  the  Everlast- 
ing Yea/'  In  the  same  chapter  he  says : 

Do  the  Duty  which  lies  nearest  thee,  which  thou  knowest  to 
be  a  Duty  !  Thy  second  Duty  will  already  have  become  clearer. 
.  .  .  The  situation  that  has  not  its  Duty,  its  Ideal,  was 
never  yet  occupied  by  man ....  Fool !  the  Ideal  is  in  thy- 
self ;  the  impediment  too  is  in  thyself. 

The  French  Revolution.  —  After  six  years  at  Craigen- 
puttock  Carlyle  in  1834  went  to  London.  He  lived  at 


FIG.   134.  —  The  Bastile. 


Cheyne  Row,  Chelsea,  until  his  death.  He  lent  the  manu- 
script of  The  French  Revolution  to  his  friend  John  Stuart  Mill, 
the  famous  philosopher,  and  Mill  in  turn  lent  it  to  a  lady 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  368 

whose  cook  seems  to  have  used  it  to  light  the  fire.  Carlyle 
worked  for  another  year  with  untiring  energy  in  an 
effort  to  reproduce  the  lost  manuscript.  Finally  The 
French  Revolution  (1837)  appeared  and  dazzled  its  readers. 
Thackeray,  Dickens,  and  other  men  praised  it  highly. 

The  author  does  not  scruple  to  flash  out  sudden  bursts 
of  laughter  or  bitter  scorn  or  tenderest  pathos,  according  to 
his  theme  and  his  mood.  He  takes  the  word  or  phrase  that 
will  best  serve  his  turn,  no  matter  whence  it  comes,  and  as 
his  soul  rises  in  tumult  at  that  tale  of  blood  and  tears,  he 
sometimes  lets  the  parts  of  speech  take  care  of  themselves. 
Like  a  series  of  pictures  in  a  thrilling  photo-play,  the  scenes 
lay  hold  of  his  readers  with  a  grasp  there  is  no  resisting.  His 
vivid  imagination  penetrates  through  dusty  documents, 
making  the  dead  to  live  and  act  again.  Once  more  in  his 
fiery  pages  we  behold  the  storming  of  the  Bastile,  the  march 
of  the  Paris  women  to  Versailles,  the  last  gallant  fight  of 
the  Swiss  guards,  and  the  stately  figure  of  the  doomed  queen. 
The  book  has  the  atmosphere  of  romance,  and  yet  later  re- 
search has  shown  that  it  is  reasonably  accurate  in  detail. 
In  the  chapter  entitled  "  Marie  Antoinette  "  are  these  words : 

At  four  o'clock  on  Wednesday  morning  (October  14,  1793), 
after  two  days  and  two  nights  of  interrogating,  jury-charging, 
and  other  darkening  of  counsel,  the  result  comes  out :  sentence 
of  Death.  ' '  Have  you  anything  to  say  ?  "  The  Accused  shook 
her  head,  without  speech.  Night's  candles  are  burning  out; 
and  with  her  too  Time  is  finishing,  and  it  will  be  Eternity  and 
Day.  This  hall  of  Tinville's  is  dark,  ill-lighted  except  where 
she  stands.  Silently  she  withdraws  from  it,  to  die.  ...  At 
eleven,  Marie- Antoinette  was  brought  out.  She  was  led  to  the 
place  of  execution,  in  the  same  manner  as  an  ordinary  criminal ; 
bound,  on  a  Cart.  .  .  .  She  mounted  the  Scaffold  with  cour- 
age enough ;  at  a  quarter  past  Twelve,  her  head  fell. 

Heroes  and  Hero- Worship.  —  Among  the  many  volumes 
—  historical,  literary,  political,  and  moral  —  produced  by 


364  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Carlyle,  one  of  the  most  popular  is  Heroes  and  Hero-Worship 
(1841),  in  which  he  declares  that  "  the  greatest  of  faults  is 
to  be  conscious  of  none."  In  this  book  he  takes  Dante, 
Shakespeare,  and  other  noted  men  to  illustrate  his  theory  that 
"  the  history  of  the  world  is  but  the  Biography  of  great  men." 
This  doctrine  underlies  his  three  historical  works,  The  French 
Revolution,  Oliver  Cromwell  (1845),  and  The  History  of 
Frederick  the  Great  (1858-1865),  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
histories  ever  written. 

Heroes  or  great  men  have  appeared  as  prophets,  poets, 
priests,  men  of  letters,  and  kings.  Heroes  are  thinkers  as 
well  as  men  of  action.  They  are  men  who  show  others 
what  should  be  done,  and  guide  them  toward  human  prog- 
ress. In  other  words,  Carlyle  was  not,  like  Morris,  a 
socialist,  but  an  individualist.  All  readers  may  not  agree 
with  him  in  either  his  choice  or  his  treatment  of  the  men  dis- 
cussed in  his  book. 

Later  Years.  —  In  1839  Carlyle  had  published  Critical 
and  Miscellaneous  Essays,  including  the  essay  on  Burns. 
Past  and  Present  (1843)  shows  its  author's  strong  sympathy 
with  artisans  and  laborers.  He  asks  justice  rather  than 
charity  for  the  toilers  of  Britain.  The  Life  of  John  Sterling 
(1851)  is  an  able  and  kindly  account  of  the  friend  that  had 
introduced  Carlyle  to  the  lady  who  became  his  wife. 

The  year  1866  burned  itself  into  the  brain  of  the  venerable 
author.  The  students  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh 
elected  him  as  Lord  Rector,  an  honor  which  he  greatly  ap- 
preciated. He  had  gone  north  to  Edinburgh  to  deliver  the 
inaugural  address,  whose  touching  eloquence  brought  tears 
to  the  eyes  of  many  of  the  audience.  Soon  afterward  a 
telegram  announced  that  his  wife  had  died  in  London.  For 
the  old  man  the  sun  never  again  shone  with  real  radiance. 
He  tried  to  forget  his  loneliness  by  working  at  his  Reminis- 
cence* (1881),  in  which  he  tells  with  deep  emotion  of  the 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  365 

wife  whom  he  had  loved.  A  pension  and  other  honors 
Carlyle  courteously  declined.  Death  overtook  him  in 
Chelsea  on  February  5,  1881.  England  would  have  honored 
him  with  a  resting-place  in  Westminster  Abbey,  but,  in 
deference  to  his  dying  wishes,  his  remains  were  laid  beside 
those  of  his  parents  in  Ecclefechan  kirkyard. 

Carlyle  as  a  Teacher.  —  Carlyle  certainly  set  his  mark 
on  the  moral  and  intellectual  history  of  the  Victorian  period. 
He  belonged  to  a  race  conspicuous  for  independence,  fight- 
ing spirit,  and  instinctive  consideration  of  men  merely  as 
men.  By  his  own  simple  life  he  taught  men  of  letters  to  be 
independent  of  circumstances.  He  had  a  stern  contempt 
for  "  the  terror  of  not  succeeding."  He  was  human,  and 
therefore  he  made  mistakes.  Occasionally  he  lacked  the 
sweetness  of  tolerance.  If  at  times  he  showed  impatience 
and  anger,  he  said  much  worse  things  of  himself  than  he  ever 
said  of  other  men.  Never  satisfied  with  his  literary  per- 
formances, he  had  to  find  new  work  for  his  busy  brain.  We 
may  say  with  truth  of  him  what  he  said  of  Schiller  —  >f  The 
primary  disposition  of  his  nature  urged  him  to  perpetual 
toil."  * 

No  writer  of  the  Victorian  period  dealt  such  fatal  blows 
at  religious  doubt  and  atheism.  His  vision  was  deep  rather 
than  broad.  From  the  very  outset  down  to  the  last  hour 
of  his  long  laborious  life  he  was  on  fire,  not  only  to  ascertain 
what  he  conceived  to  be  true  and  right,  but  to  have  the  right 
accomplished  among  his  fellow-men.  "His  guiding  genius," 
says  Emerson,  "  is  his  moral  sense,  his  perception  of  the  sole 
importance  of  truth  and  justice." 

Carlyle's  Place  in  Literature.  —  Men  of  genius  are  nearly 
always  in  advance  of  their  times.  Carlyle's  genius  com- 
bined most  of  those  elements  which  distinguish  a  man  of 
high  literary  attainments  —  knowledge,  reason,  and  an 
extraordinary  gift  of  expression.  Essentially  a  writer  of 


366 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


great  native  vigor,  he  reveals  in  all  his  works  the  same 
massiveness  of  proportion.  To  a  rare  degree  he  possessed 
the  power  of  describing  events  so  vividly  that  we  could 
fancy  that  he  had  been  an  eye-witness.  Rugged  phrases 
leap  forth  here  and  there  in  a  manner  natural  to  their  author. 
The  style  is  such  as  to  cause  readers  to  see  and  to  think,  and 
those  who  continue  to  think  will  profit  by  Carlyle  whether 
they  accept  or  reject  his  striking  utterances.  In  originality 
of  thought  and  expression  he  has  no  superior  among  prose 
writers  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

THOMAS  BABINGTON,  LORD  MACAULAY  (1800-1859) 

Macaulay's  nephew,  Sir  George  Otto  Trevelyan,  wrote 
the  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay  (1876).     It  is  one  of 

the  most  readable  of  modern 
biographies,  showing  an  intimate 
precise  knowledge  of  Macaulay's 
character  and  achievements. 

Thomas  Babington  Macaulay 
was  born  in  1800  at  Rothley 
Temple,  the  Leicestershire  home 
of  his  uncle,  after  whom  he  was 
named.  At  three  he  learned  to 
read.  Like  so  many  other  liter- 
ary men  in  boyhood,  he  showed 
a  strong  liking  for  English  com- 
position, Scott  being  the  author 
whom  he  was  most  anxious  to 
imitate.  At  the  age  of  nine  he 
read  Scott's  Lay  of  the  Last 

FIG.  135. -Lord  Macaulay.       Minstrel,  and  was  able  to  repeat 

the  poem  after  a  single  reading. 
His  astonishing  memory  was  of  great  service  in  giving  him 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  367 

readiness  in  debate  and  richness  in  literary  allusion. 
Thomas  was  also  a  rapid  and  varied  reader,  absorbing 
every  book  that  caught  his  fancy.  In  1818  he  entered 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  where  he  twice  won  first  honors 
in  the  English  prize-poem  contest.  For  a  short  time  he 
contributed  articles  to  Knight's  Quarterly  Magazine. 

Macaulay  entered  Parliament  in  1830,  and  soon  acquired 
a  reputation  as  an  orator,  especially  in  the  discussions  con- 
nected with  the  introduction  of  the  Reform  Bill.  In  1834, 
at  a  yearly  salary  of  £10,000,  he  was  sent  to  Calcutta, 
where  he  carried  out  reforms  in  the  laws  of  India.  After 
his  return  to  England  in  1839,  Lord  Melbourne,  the  prime 
minister,  conferred  upon  him  the  post  of  secretary  of  war, 
which  he  held  till  1841.  The  Speech  on  Copyright  (1841) 
is  a  fair  specimen  of  his  animated  style. 

The  Essays.  —  It  was  in  1825  that  Macaulay  wrote  his 
first  essay  for  the  Edinburgh  Review,  the  great  Whig  periodical 
to  which  he  contributed  for  about  twenty  years.  The  first 
of  the  series  was  on  Milton,  an  essay  which  at  once  gave  its 
author  a  high  literary  reputation.  Its  appearance  seemed 
to  mark  the  rise  of  a  new  star  of  uncommon  lustre  above 
the  horizon. 

All  the  essays  were  collected  in  1843  and  published  in 
three  volumes.  They  belong  to  two  classes,  literary  and 
historical.  Among  the  most  sympathetic  of  the  literary 
essays  are  Milton,  Addison,  Goldsmith,  and  Johnson.  Among 
the  historical  essays  that  take  high  rank  are  Lord  Clive, 
the  story  of  a  former  military  leader  in  India  (1725-1774), 
and  Warren  Hastings,  which  deals  with  the  chief  founder  of 
the  British  empire  in  India  (1732-1818).  The  essayist  was 
well  qualified  to  write  about  Clive  and  Hastings,  because  he 
had  spent  several  years  in  India  and  was  familiar  with  con- 
ditions in  the  East. 

Macaulay  has  been  assailed  so  often  for  his  one-sidedness 


368  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

that,  so  far  as  the  essays  are  concerned,  it  is  well  to  remember 
that  he  himself  acknowledges,  "  Their  life  is  only  six  weeks." 
In  other  words,  he  wrote  them  for  entertainment  rather  than 
for  serious  instruction,  and  he  achieved  the  purpose  he  had 
in  view.  As  literature  his  essays  are  excellent  reading ;  as 
literary  criticism  or  serious  biography  we  need  to  allow  for 
what  Macaulay  perhaps  could  not  avoid  —  prejudice,  polit- 
ical or  personal.  He  deals  with  events  rather  than  causes. 
With  pleasure  we  are  borne  along  the  rushing  stream  of  his 
narrative,  knowing  well  that  its  beauty  conceals  no  deep 
pool  in  which  we  may  have  to  struggle  for  breath.  Macau- 
lay's  descriptions  have  all  the  detail  and  luminous  charm  of 
a  Defoe,  with  a  sparkle  and  vivacity  unsurpassed  in  the 
Victorian  period. 

The  Poems.  — Macaulay's  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome  (1842), 
The  Armada  (1848),  Ivry  (1848),  and  other  poems  have 
always  been  popular  with  juvenile  readers.  The  Lays  he 
wrote  in  a  simple  style,  a  style  which  he  thought  might  re- 
semble that  of  the  old  folk-songs  of  the  Roman  Republic. 
They  have  plenty  of  spirit. 

The  History.  —  Macaulay's  History  of  England,  the  first 
volume  of  which  appeared  in  1848,  is  written  without  any 
pretence  to  impartiality.  In  his  essay  on  Machiavelli  he 
declares :  "  The  best  portraits  are  perhaps  those  in  which 
there  is  a  slight  mixture  of  caricature,  and  we  are  not  certain 
that  the  best  histories  are  not  those  in  which  a  little  of  the 
exaggeration  of  fictitious  narrative  is  judiciously  employed. 
Something  is  lost  in  accuracy,  but  much  is  gained  in  effect." 

The  History  was  to  be  an  exposition  of  the  period  from 
1685  to  1830,  but  in  the  five  volumes  Macaulay  covered  only 
sixteen  years.  The  work  is  fascinating  in  its  wealth  of  detail. 
The  author  gathered  his  material  like  a  scientific  historian, 
and  he  made  use  of  it  like  a  writer  of  romance.  He  was  at 
work  on  the  history  when  he  was  raised  to  the  peerage  in 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


369 


1857.  Two  years  later  he  died  and  was  buried  in  West- 
minster Abbey.  The  fifth  volume  was  published  in  1861, 
subsequent  to  its  author's  death. 

Macaulay's  Place  in  Literature.  —  Macaulay  was  one  of 
the  most  illustrious  prose  writers  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
He  was  never  troubled,  like  Carlyle,  about  life's  mysteries, 
nor  did  he  worry  about  life's  follies  and  failures.  He  had 
the  power  of  making  his  story  so  clear  to  others,  by  repetition 
and  by  happy  illustration,  that  his  ideas  are  easy  to  compre- 
hend. "  I  wish  I  could  be  as  cocksure  of  anything  as  Macau- 
lay  is  of  everything,"  said  his  friend  Lord  Melbourne.  The 
historian's  exuberant  imagination  and  never-failing  self- 
confidence  will  always  impart  a  sense  of  trustfulness  to 
some  of  his  readers.  He  deserves  the  highest  credit  for 
having  developed  a  literary  style  of  unusual  dash  and 
brilliance. 


JOHN  HENRY,  CARDINAL  NEWMAN  (1801-1890) 


John  Henry  Newman  was 
born  at  England's  capital. 
In  1816  he  entered  Trinity 
College,  Oxford,  and  began 
to  contribute  articles  to  the 
Encyclopedia  Metropolitana. 
In  1824  he  was  ordained, 
and  four  years  later  he  was 
appointed  Vicar  of  St. 
Mary's,  Oxford.  Finally 
Newman  became  leader  of 
what  was  called  the  Oxford 
Movement,  a  phase  of  ro- 
manticism parallel  to  the 
Pre-Raphaelite  movement. 
2u 


From  the  drawing  made  in  1844  by  George  Rich- 
mond, R.A. 


FIG.  136.  —  John  H.  Newman. 


370  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

It  was  an  attempt  to  bring  a  deeper  spirituality  into  public 
worship  by  restoring  some  of  the  ideas  of  medieval  times. 
Its  power  lay  mainly  in  the  personality  of  its  leader,  whose 
sanctity  of  life  was  impressive. 

Prose  Works.  —  Besides  religious  works  Xewman  wrote 
The  Idea  of  a  University  (1852),  which  contains  his  fine 
description  of  what  is  meant  when  we  call  a  man  a  gentleman. 
This  passage  may  serve  to  indicate  Newman's  prose  style. 

It  is  almost  a  definition  of  a  gentleman  to  say  he  is  one  who 
never  inflicts  pain.  This  description  is  both  refined  and,  as 
far  as  it  goes,  accurate.  He  is  mainly  occupied  in  merely 
removing  the  obstacles  which  hinder  the  free  and  unembar- 
rassed action  of  those  about  him ;  and  he  concurs  with  their 
movements  rather  than  takes  the  initiative  himself.  His 
benefits  may  be  considered  as  parallel  to  what  are  called  com- 
forts or  conveniences  in  arrangements  of  a  personal  nature: 
like  an  easy  chair  or  a  good  fire,  which  do  their  part  in  dispelling 
cold  and  fatigue,  though  nature  provides  both  means  of  rest  and 
animal  heat  without  them.  The  true  gentleman  in  like  manner 
carefully  avoids  whatever  may  cause  a  jar  or  a  jolt  in  the  minds 
of  those  with  whom  he  is  cast  ...  his  great  concern  being  to 
make  every  one  at  their  ease  and  at  home. 

The  best  of  Newman's  novels  is  Callista  (1852),  whose 
scene  is  laid  in  Africa.  It  is  a  story  of  the  conflict  between 
Christianity  and  Paganism  in  the  third  century.  The  Apolo- 
gia pro  Vita  Sua  (Defence  of  his  own  Life,  1864)  is  a  religious 
autobiography,  in  which  the  author  depicts  his  inner  life. 

Poems.  —  Among  the  poems  of  the  scholarly  Newman  is 
The  Dream  of  Gerontius  (1866),  which  displays  high  imagi- 
native power  and  deep  spirituality.  It  endeavors  to  convey 
to  its  readers  some  idea  of  one  whose  soul  is  about  to  rise 
to  possibilities  greater  than  ever.  Of  all  the  lyrics  none  is 
nearly  so  popular  as  the  touching  and  truly  poetic  hymn 
Lead,  Kindly  Light. 

In  1879  Newman  became  a  cardinal.     Eleven  vears  later 


THE    VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


1 


at  Edgbaston  the  spirit  of  this  saintly  man  winged  its  way 
into  the  unseen. 

Newman's  Place  in  Literature.  —  Newman  ranks  among 
the  most  thoughtful  writers  of  the  Victorian  period.  In 
argument  he  was  as  adroit  as  Macaulay;  in  moral  earnest- 
Desa  })<  was  not  inferior  to  Carlyle.  What  is  most  admirable 
in  the  best  of  his  prose  and  verse  is  his  restraint,  his  breeding, 
his  transparency. 

WILLIAM  MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY  (1811-1863) 

William  Makepeace  Thackeray  was  born  of  English 
parents  at  Calcutta.  In  his  fifth  year  the  child  was  sent 
from  India  to  England.  On 
the  voyage  the  vessel 
touched  at  St.  Helena,  and 
the  boy  saw  Napoleon  in 
lonely  exile.  His  attendant 
told  him  that  Napoleon 
an  ogre  —  "he  eats  three 
sheep  every  day  and  all  the 
children  he  can  lay  his  hands 
on."  When  he  left  Charter- 
house School,  the  lad  in 
1829  entered  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge. 

Later  Thackeray  visited 
Germany  and  France.  In 
1832  he  inherited  a  consid- 
erable  fortune,  which  was 
soon  lost  through  bad  judg- 
ment.  For  a  while  he 

...  .        _.      . 

studied    art    in    Pans.      In 


•  ^^ 

ji  A      *i       i 

\l  i>^  \{  \  >VVy  rwjgiji  ci  • 


, 

FIG.  137.  —  \V  .  M  .  Thackeray. 


1836  he  married  Isabella  Shawe.     Soon  he  began  to  con- 


372  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tribute  humorous  sketches,  verses,  and  short  stories  for  the 
London  comic  paper  Punch  and  for  Fraser's  Magazine.  It 
was  his  work  for  Punch,  both  as  a  cartoonist  and  as  a  writer, 
that  brought  out  his  genius  as  a  humorist.  Barry  Lyndon 
(1844)  is  the  story  of  an  Irish  adventurer  in  the  army  of 
Frederick  the  Great.  The  Book  of  Snobs  (1846)  gives  lively 
satirical  sketches  of  club  life  in  London.  A  collection  of 
some  of  the  papers  which  Thackeray  had  contributed  to 
Punch,  it  is  more  or  less  like  Fielding's  Jonathan  Wild  in  its 
attitude. 

Earlier  Popular  Novels.  —  It  was  Vanity  Fair  (1847- 
1848),  the  best  known  of  all  Thackeray's  novels,  that  first 
gave  its  author  prominence  in  the  world  of  letters.  The  title 
was  borrowed  from  Bunyan's  Pilgrim's  Progress.  It  is  a 
satire  on  the  shams  that  infest  social  life.  Stronger  iiTcTiar- 
acter  drawing  than  in  plot,  the  novel  is  largely  a  study  of 
Becky  (Rebecca)  Sharp.  Opposed  to  her  is  the  pretty, 
though  not  too  intelligent,  Amelia  Sedley.  Among  the  male 
characters  are  Rawdon  Crawley,  the  big  dragoon,  and  the 
unselfish  William  Dobbin.  Pictures  of  life  in  Brussels  mingle 
with  scenes  in  London.  Pendennis  (1849-1850)  is  another 
social  satire,  depicting  Arthur  Pendennis,  who  is  represented 
as  a  typical  young  English  gentleman. 

Later  Popular  Novels.  —  Taking  a  hint  from  Scott's 
Waverley  novels,  Thackeray  wrote  Henry  Esmond  (1852), 
a  historical  novel  that  deals  with  the  time  of  Queen  Anne. 
In  order  to  create  the  proper  atmosphere,  it  is  written  in 
the  literary  language  of  the  early  eighteenth  century. 
Steele,  Addison,  and  others  appear  in  the  narrative.  Colo- 
nel Esmond  tells  his  own  story.  He  has  for  years  tried 
to  win  Beatrix  Castlewood,  and  finally  consoles  himself  by 
marrying  her  mother.  Thackeray  has  taken  liberties  with 
history,  but  no  one  looks  for  accuracy  except  in  serious 
history.  The  novel  is  realistic,  and  the  plot  is  better  con- 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  373 

structed  than  that  of  any  of  the  other  novels.  As  a  work 
of  literary  art  it  is  superior  to  the  more  popular  Vanity 
Fair. 

Thackeray  next  wrote  The  Newcomes  (1854-1855),  which 
is  a  sequel  to  Pendennis.  Colonel  Newcome,  who  is  Thack- 
eray's ideal  gentleman,  is  one  of  the  most  attractive 
characters  in  English  prose  fiction.  Many  people  have  wept 
over  the  death  of  the  good  Colonel.  The  fifth  and  last  of 
the  great  novels  is  The  Virginians  (1857-1859),  which  is  in 
some  measure  a  sequel  to  Esmond.  It  shows  us  the  Esmonds 
in  America  at  the  time  of  the  American  Revolution. 

English  Humorists.  —  Thackeray  prepared  English  Hu- 
mourists of  the  Eighteenth  Century  (published,  1853)  as  a  series 
of  six  lectures,  which  he  delivered  in  England  in  1851,  and 
in  America  in  the  winter  of  1852-1853.  An  extract  from  the 
lecture  on  Addison  may  serve  to  illustrate  Thackeray's 
gentler  style. 

He  must  have  been  one  of  the  finest  gentlemen  the  world 
ever  saw  :  at  all  moments  of  life  serene  and  courteous,  cheerful 
and  calm.  He  could  scarcely  ever  have  had  a  degrading 
thought.  He  might  have  committed  a  virtue  or  two,  or  many, 
but  could  not  have  committed  many  faults  for  which  he  need 
blush  or  turn  pale.  When  warmed  into  confidence,  his  conver- 
sation appears  to  have  been  so  delightful  that  the  greatest 
wits  sat  rapt  and  charmed  to  listen  to  him. 

Later  Years.  —  In  the  winter  of  1855  at  Rome,  Thackeray, 
in  order  to  please  a  few  of  his  child  friends,  wrote  -£he  Rose^ 
and  the  Ring,  which  is  a  classic  among  children's  stories. 
Hedzoff  and  the  Countess  Gruffanuff  are  among  the  char- 
acters. In  The  Four  Georges  (1860),  which  first  appeared 
as  public  lectures  in  America  and  England,  Thackeray  makes 
some  sarcastic  comments  upon  the  four  English  monarchs 
named  George.  The  novelist  died  rather  suddenly  in  1863, 
on  a  bright  wintry  day,  the  last  but  one  of  the  year.  He  was 


374  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

laid  in  his  grave  at  Kensal  Green,  Charles  Dickens  being 
chief  mourner. 

Thackeray's  Place  in  English  Literature.  —  Thackeray  is 
one  of  the  greatest  writers  of  realistic  prose  fiction.  He 
differs  from  some  realistic  novelists  in  that  no  man  or  woman 
was  ever  made  the  worse,  but  ofttimes  a  great  deal  better, 
by  coming  in  contact  with  his  creations.  A  disciple  of 
Fielding,  he  did  not  scruple  to  show  some  of  the  disagreeable 
phases  of  human  life.  "  I  have  no  brains  above  my  eyes/' 
he  acknowledged ;  "  I  describe  what  I  see."  In  other  words, 
he  lacked  the  poetic  imagination  of  Scott,  the  prince  of  prose 
romance. 

Thackeray  was  not  a  cynic,  a  man-hater,  even  if  his  five 
great  novels  constitute  a  severe  censure  of  certain  types  of 
people  in  comfortable  circumstances.  In  spite  of  his  sarcasm 
the  author  of  Vanity  Fair  was  in  reality  a  kind-hearted  man, 
who  often  laughed  at  social  follies  in  order  to  forget  the  secret 
sorrows  of  his  own  life.  He  had  to  endure  the  sorrow  of 
separation  from  his  wife  on  account  of  her  insanity.  Like 
Carlyle,  he  denounced  hypocrisy  of  every  kind,  but  he  did  so 
because  he  believed  that  the  lash  of  his  irony  would  help  to 
make  society  more  noble.  Thackeray  himself  was  a  real 
humorist,  taking  a  particular  delight  in  boys,  tender  even 
toward  the  rogues  of  his  creation,  as  a  rule  generous  in  social 
intercourse  with  others.  This  side  of  his  nature  is  well 
illustrated  by  the  anecdote  told  at  the  Reform  Club.  There 
had  been  some  unkind  gossip  about  a  member,  recently 
deceased.  "  That's  right,''  said  Thackeray.  "  Kick  him. 
Trample  on  him.  He's  dead." 

Though  influenced  by  Fielding  and  the  writers  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  Thackeray  was  no  parrot.  Even  from 
childhood  he  had  a  pungent,  clear  style,  free  from  affectation. 
Among  his  predecessors,  Fielding  and  Scott  are  the  only 
writers  of  prose  fiction  whose  genius  is  fairly  comparable 
with  that  of  the  creator  of  Colonel  Newcome. 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


CHARLES  DICKENS  (1812-1870) 


375 


Why  do  so  many  people  like  Dickens?  Largely  because 
he  was  the  friend  of  the  faithful  teacher  and  the  friend  of 
youth.  Scott  and  other  writers  have  introduced  teachers 


FIG.   138.  —  Dickens  in  his  study  at  Gad's  Hill. 


into  their  works,  but  Dickens  was  interested  in  schools  to 
a  greater  degree  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  Nearly  all 
his  works  have  educational  suggestions.  Schoolmasters 
are  leading  characters  in  six  of  his  novels  —  Nicholas  Nickleby 


376  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

(1838-1839),  The  Old  Curiosity  Shop  (1840),  Dombey  and 
Son  (1846-1848),  David  Copper  field  (1849-1850),  Hard 
Times  (1854),  and  Our  Mutual  Friend  (1864-1865).  Squeers 
in  the  first  of  these  novels  is  a  distinct  contrast  to  the  unsel- 
fish schoolmaster  who  sheltered  little  Nell.  The  heart  of 
Dickens  throbbed  in  warm  sympathy  with  the  trials  of  the 
young.  He  tried  to  show  the  basis  of  true  discipline,  whether 
in  the  home  or  in  the  classroom. 

Charles  Dickens,  a  native  of  Portsmouth,  was  born  the 
same  year  as  Robert  Browning.  His  early  literary  educa- 
tion came  from  his  own  thirst  for  knowledge.  No  one  had 
to  coax  the  boy  to  read.  He  found  some  old  books  in  a 
cupboard,  and  soon  he  had  eagerly  read  Smollett's  novels 
and  all  other  books  he  could  find.  On  account  of  poverty, 
Charles  had  to  leave  school  and  work  in  a  factory,  while  other 
lads  were  enjoying  the  help  of  their  teachers.  Nothing, 
however,  can  stop  a  boy  with  courage  and  perseverance.  He 
had  to  wear  shabby  clothes  and  was  often  half  starved,  but 
his  hardships  made  him  all  the  more  determined  to  fight 
and  win  in  the  battle  of  life.  If  he  had  not  suffered  as  he  did, 
he  could  never  have  written  so  intimately  of  the  sorrows  and 
temptations  of  poor  people  in  a  big  city. 

Once  more  Charles  had  a  chance  to  attend  school  for  a 
while,  but  in  his  fifteenth  year  he  had  to  begin  again  to  earn 
money.  By  day  he  was  acting  as  clerk  in  a  lawyer's  office 
in  London ;  by  night  he  was  studying  shorthand.  Soon  he 
became  a  Parliamentary  reporter  for  the  Morning  Chronicle. 
In  his  spare  time  he  was  writing  sketches  descriptive  of 
London  life.  After  they  had  appeared  in  the  newspapers 
he  published  them  in  book  form  as  Sketches  by  Boz  (1836). 
Boz  was  a  little  sister's  way  of  pronouncing  Moses,  the  nick- 
name that  Dickens  gave  to  a  younger  brother.  He  called 
him  Moses  after  the  lad  mentioned  in  Goldsmith's  Vicar  of 
Wakefield. 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  377 

Not  Luck  but  Pluck.  —  Did  Dickens  whine  about  his  hard 
struggle  for  existence  ?  Certainly  not.  He  was  sensitive, 
yet  he  kept  cheery  because  the  angel  of  hope  was  beckoning 
him  onward.  Only  400  copies  of  the  first  part  of  The  Pick- 
wick Papers  (1836-1837)  were  published  on  March  31,  1836, 
and  before  the  appearance  of  the  fourth  number  the  pub- 
lishers thought  they  might  have  to  stop  the  issue,  as  the  ex- 
penses were  greater  than  the  receipts.  In  the  fifth  number 
Dickens  introducedjSam  Weller,  and  this  new  character  took 
the  country  by  storm.  The  author  created  Sam  Weller,  the 
servant  of  Mr.  Pickwick,  from  his  knowledge  of  Samuel 
Vale.  Vale,  at  that  time  a  popular  player  in  a  farce,  used 
queer  comparisons  like  —  "I  am  down  upon  you/'  as  the 
extinguisher  said  to  the  rushlight ;  "  Come  on,  "  as  the  man 
said  to  the  tight  boot. 

The  Pickwick  Papers,  which  owes  some  of  its  charm  to 
the  work  of  the  novelist  Smollett,  is  a  series  of  sketches 
showing  the  comic  possibilities  of  life  in  London.  The  kind 
old  bachelor  Mr.  Pickwick  and  his  friends  Snodgrass,  Winkle, 
and  Tupman  are  supposed  to  belong  to  a  club,  the  members 
of  which  encounter  some  amusing  difficulties.  The  shrewd 
and  witty  Sam  Weller  is  inimitable. 

Earlier  Novels.  —  Dickens  always  found  pleasure  in  hard 
work.  Oliver  Twi-st  (1837-1838)  is  a  rogue  or  picaresque 
story  of  the  London  slums.  A  workhouse  boy  becomes 
entangled  with  a  gang  of  thieves  led  by  Fagjn,  yet  he  escapes 
and  becomes  a  decent  citizen.  "  I  wished  to  show  in  little 
Oliver/'  says  Dickens,  "  the  principle  of  the  Good  surviving 
through  every  adverse  circumstance/' 

The  next  novel,  Nicholas  Nickleby,  shows  us  Dotheboys 
(cheat  the  boys)  Hall  in  Yorkshire,  a  private  school  badly 
managed  by  Mr.  Squeers.  The  hero  is  finally  helped  by  the 
Cheeryble  brothers.  Mrs.  Nickleby  in  some  respects  re- 
sembles the  novelist's  mother. 


378 


ENGLISH  LITEEATUBE 


Little  Nell  tries  to  save  her  bankrupt  grandfather,  the 
shop-keeper,  from  Quilp  the  dwarf,  one  of  the  creditors  in 

The  Old  Curiosity  Shop. 

Nell  and  her  grandfather 
meet  a  delightful  school- 
master in  the  course  of 
their  adventures.  This 
is  one  of  the  most  popu- 
lar of  the  novels. 

A  mysterious  murder 
is  told  in  Barnaby  Rudge 
(1841),  which  is  the  first 
historical  novel  of  Dick- 
ens. It  deals  partly  with 
the  riots  of  1780,  when 
the  London  mob  set  fire 
to  Newgate  prison. 

Dickens  had  returned 
from  a  visit  to  America 
when  he  wrote  Martin 
Chuzzlewit  (1843).  Its 
allusions  to  America  indicate  that  the  novelist  must  have 
had  some  annoying  dreams.  Pecksniff  and  Mrs.  Gamp  are 
the  most  original  English  characters  in  this  work. 

After    a  twelvemonth  in    Italy,  Dickens  went  back  to 
England  to  establish  and  edit  The  Daily  News,  but  he  soon  j 
returned  to  prose  fiction.     Dombey  and  Son  shows  how  the  j 
pride  of  a  merchant  is  humbled  and  his  heart  softened  j 
through  suffering. 

Later  Novels.  —  The  masterpiece  of  Dickens  is  David 
Copperfield,  which  is  partly  the  story  of  its  author's  earlier 
career.  Among  its  more  notable  characters  are  Mr.  Micaw- 
ber,  Uriah  Heep,  Dr.  Strong,  Peggotty,  and  Betsey  Trotwood. 
The  first  has  one  or  two  of  the  characteristics  of  the  novelist's 


FIG.   139.  —  Nell  and  her  Grandfather. 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  379 

father.  The  purpose  of  the  story  is  to  teach  the  value  of 
sympathy,  to  warn  against  hypocrisy,  and  to  insist  that 
either  good  or  evil  is  sure  to  bring  a  harvest  for  the  sower. 
The  plot  is  better  constructed  than  that  of  its  predecessors. 
The  following  extract  indicates  the  style : 

I  now  write  of  the  time  when  I  had  been  married,  I  suppose, 
about  a  year  and  a  half.  After  several  varieties  of  experiment, 
we  had  given  up  the  housekeeping  as  a  bad  job.  The  house 
kept  itself,  and  we  kept  a  page.  The  principal  function  of  this 
retainer  was  to  quarrel  with  the  cook.  .  .  .  We  wanted  to 
get  rid  of  him,  but  he  was  very  much  attached  to  us,  and 
wouldn't  go.  He  was  a  tearful  boy. 

In  Bleak  House  (1852-1853)  is  an  account  of  what  some- 
times happens  to  the  people  that  are  involved  in  the 
delays  of  courts  of  law.  Hard  Times  deals  with  labor 
troubles;  Little  Dorrit  (1855-1857)  attacks  the  system 
whereby  debtors  were  kept  in  prison ;  A  Tale  of  Two  Cities 
(1859)  shows  Paris  and  London  at  the  time  of  the  French 
Revolution.  Some  critics  regard  this  as  the  most  artistic 
of  all  these  novels.  Great  Expectations  (1861),  warning  its 
readers  against  ingratitude,  has  a  plot  of  uncommon  unity. 
It  deals  with  the  return  of  a  convict.  Our  Mutual  Friend 
at  the  outset  shows  us  a  hook-nosed  man  and  his  daughter 
engaged  in  strange  work  on  the  river  Thames.  As  in  all  the 
other  works  there  is  a  blend  of  fun  and  pathos. 

Christmas  Books.  —  Dickens  wrote  some  charming  tales 
of  Christmas,  namely,  The  Christmas  Carol  (1843),  The 
Chimes  (1844),  The  Cricket  on  the  Hearth  (1845),  The  Battle 
of  Life  (1846),  and  The  Haunted  Man  and  the  Ghost's  Bargain 
(1848).  Instead  of  the  usual  doleful  ghost  stories,  Dickens 
mingled  the  supernatural  element  with  a  kindly  humor. 
The  first  of  his  Christmas  books  is  perhaps  the  most  popular 
of  the  world's  ghost  stories. 

Later  Years.  —  Dickens  had  worked  hard  all  his  life.     He 


380 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


fatigued  himself  giving  readings  in  America  (1868)  and  else- 
where, and  he  was  conducting  a  periodical  known  as  All 
the  Year  Round.  He  was  writing  Edwin  Drood  (1869-1870), 
when  he  died  at  Gad's  Hill,  near  Rochester,  in  1870.  He  was 
laid  to  rest  in  Westminster  Abbey. 


FIG.  140.  — Gad's  Hill. 

Dickens's  Place  in  Literature.  —  During  the  Victorian 
period  Dickens  was  the  best-known  writer  of  prose  fiction, 
as  was  Scott  during  the  romantic  period.  More  than  any 
Victorian  writer  he  lays  stress  upon  physiognomy ;  that  is, 
he  believes  that  to  some  extent  the  face  is  an  index  of  the 
soul.  He  may  indulge  in  caricature  in  some  of  his  character 
sketches,  yet  there  is  a  high  purpose  underlying  all  his  mirth. 
In  his  judgment  the  plainest  face  and  the  homeliest  manner 
may  cover  a  noble  intellect  and  a  heart  beating  with  love 
for  mankind. 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  381 

Most  of  Thackeray's  characters  are  people  in  comfortable 
circumstances ;  most  of  the  characters  of  Dickens  are  per- 
sons in  the  humbler  walks  of  life.  As  compared  with  Thack- 
eray, he  is  not  a  polished  writer  of  English  prose.  Most  of  his 
works  Dickens  wrote  in  a  hurry.  The  result  is  that  the  in- 
cidents of  his  stories  do  not  always  seem  closely  related  to 
each  other.  Highly  colored  as  are  some  of  his  pictures,  yet 
they  are  never  degrading  in  their  tendency. 

No  man  ever  had  a  keener  appreciation  of  a  comic  situa- 
tion. All  admit  his  alert  sense  of  humor,  though  at  times 
the  pathos  may  be  overdrawn.  Dickens  created  many  new 
types  of  mankind.  The  world  which  he  depicted  may  not 
be  a  photograph  of  life  as  it  is,  yet  it  is  life  as  seen  through 
the  shrewd  eyes  of  a  man  who  had  not  lost  confidence  in 
human  nature.  As  a  purveyor  of  innocent  fun,  as  one  who 
appeals  to  the  better  side  of  human  nature,  Dickens  ranks 
among  the  masters  of  English  prose  fiction. 

Humanitarian  Novelists 

Humanitarian  novelists  are  those  who  employ _ tb e^art  of 
prose  fiction  forimproving  the  social  welfare  of  humanity^ 
especially  of  thoseVhoTdo  not  enjoy  many  of  life's  comforts. 
Dickens  was  the  greatest  of  the  humanitarian  novelists, 
but  he  was  not  alone.  Benjamin  Disraeli  (1804-1881)  in 
his  Sybil  (1845)  gives  an  account  of  the  condition  of  English 
workmen  after  the  riots  of  1839. 

Mrs.  Elizabeth  Gaskell  (1810-1865)  in  Cranford  (1853) 
furnishes  interesting  pictures  of  a  quiet  English  village.  Her 
Mary  Barton  (1848)  and  North  and  South  (1855)  treat  of 
the  labor  problem  in  a  most  pleasing  manner. 

Charles  Reade  (1814-1874)  is  at  times  a  disciple  of  Dick- 
ens. In  his  Never  Too  Late  to  Mend  (1856)  he  presents  a  study 
of  the  hardships  of  prisoners.  His  masterpiece,  however, 


382  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

is  The  Cloister  and  the  Hearth  (1861),  a  historical  novel 
dealing  with  student  and  vagabond  life  in  medieval  times. 
The  technique  is  old-fashioned ;  the  character  sketches  are 
excellent. 

Charles  Kingsley  (1819-1875)  wrote  humanitarian  novels, 
of  which  Alton  Locke  (1849)  is  best  known.  It  well  deserves 
to  be  read  as  a  sympathetic  earnest  study  of  labor  troubles 
in  England.  He  followed  Scott,  without  Scott's  humor, 
in  his  two  spirited  historical  romances.  Hypatia  (1853)  is 
the  story  of  the  struggle  at  Alexandria  between  Christianity 
and  Paganism  in  the  fifth  century,  whereas  Westward  Ho 
(1855)  is  an  adventure  story  of  the  Elizabethan  age.  The 
hero  of  Hereward  the  Wake  (1866)  is  certainly  a  great  fighter. 

Sir  Walter  Besant  (1836-1901)  was  the  author  of  All 
Sorts  and  Conditions  of  Men  (1882).  He  proved  to  be  as 
practical  a  philanthropist  as  Dickens.  The  People's  Palace 
in  London  was  one  of  the  good  results  of  this  volume.  The 
building  was  erected  to  keep  men  from  temptation  by  provid- 
ing innocent  entertainment  for  their  leisure  hours. 

THE  SISTERS  BRONTE 

Charlotte  Bronte  (1816-1855)  was  a  daughter  of  the  Rev- 
erend Patrick  Bronte,  a  native  of  County  Down,  Ireland. 
She  was  born  at  Thornton,  near  Bradford,  Yorkshire.  Soon 
afterward  the  family  removed  to  Haworth,  which  is  close  to 
the  dreariest  moorland  country  in  England.  She  is  remem- 
bered mainly  by  reason  of  her  Jane  Eyre  (1847),  a  novel 
which  has  been  admired  for  its  intense  glowing  style,  its 
pictures  of  wild  moorland  scenery,  and  its  freshness  of  out- 
look. It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  stories  ever  written. 
Charlotte's  Shirley  (1849)  is  another  of  her  notable  works. 

Meanwhile  Wuthering  Heights  (1847)  had  been  written 
by  Emily  Bronte  (1818-1848).  It  is  a  strange,  sombre  work 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


383 


of  undoubted  vigor,  though  it  lacks  the  literary  excellence 
of  Charlotte's  novels.  Both  sisters,  lonely  and  rebellious, 
had  in  large  measure  the  gift  of  expression. 

GEORGE  ELIOT  (1819-1880) 

Evans  is  a  Welsh  surname.  Mary  Ann  Evans,  whose 
pen-name  was  George  Eliot,  was  born  at  South  Farm, 
Arbury,  which  is  in  Shakespeare's 
county  of  Warwickshire.  Shortly 
after  her  birth  the  family  moved 
to  Griff  House  on  the  Arbury  es- 
tate. In  fine  weather  she  walked 
three  miles  to  a  girl's  school  at 
Xuneaton,  where  her  classmates 
are  said  to  have  noted  her  dark 
splendid  eyes.  At  her  stern 
father's  big  farmhouse  in  the 
evenings  she  struggled  with  what 
she  termed  her  sick  soul.  This 
process,  however,  was  lightened 
a  little  by  the  gift  of  ^  humor 
which  came  to  her  from  her 
mother.  Her  reading  was  wide 
and  varied.  She  found  oppor- 
tunity for  the  study  of  Greek, 


From  a  photograph 


FIG.  141.  — George  Eliot. 


Latin,  French,  German,  Italian,  and  music.     She  was  not 
a  mere  bookworm ;   she  liked  to  meet  people. 

In  1851  she  removed  to  London  to  assist  in  editing  the 
Westminster  Review.  Six  years  later  she  began  publishing 
short  stories  in  Blackwood's  Magazine  under  the  name  of 
George  Eliot.  They  were  collected  in  two  volumes  and 
published  under  the  title  of  Scenes  of  Clerical  Life  (1858). 
This  work  invited  some  attention  by  its  quiet  humor  and 


384  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

tenderness.  Its  underlying  purpose  may  be  traced  back  to 
Mrs.  Gaskell's  Ruth  (1858).  It  seeks  to  show  that  it  is 
character  which  controls  human  destiny,  an  idea  emphasized 
by  some  of  the  leading  thinkers  of  that  age. 

Earlier  Novels.  —  When  Miss  Evans,  still  concealing  her 
real  name,  published  Adam  Bede  (1859),  she  attracted 
general  notice.  In  later  works  she  attained  finer  analysis 


FIG.  142.  —  George  Eliot's  first  home. 

of  human  character  and  superior  finish  in  style,  yet  many 
readers  continue  to  prefer  Adam  Bede.  Once  more  Miss 
Evans  followed  Elizabeth  Gaskell.  Adam  Bede±  like  Ruth, 
is  a  study  of  the  outcome  of  humanlrailty  The  theme  is 
similar,  but  the  treatment  is  different.  George  Eliot,  as 
we  may  call  her,  is  moreje^listicj  that  is,  she  portrays  scenes 
in  real  life  with  greater  fi3elity7  HeLsixfiBgtb  lies  in  minute 
delineation  of  character  in  its  growth  for  better  or  worse. 

Another  study  of  country  life  in  the  English  midlands  is 
The  Mill  on  the  Floss  (1860).    The  authoress  used  to  pass 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  385 

Tom  Rollick's  mill  every  day  on  her  way  to  school  at  Nun- 
eaton,  and  Tom  is  the  original  of  Tulliver.     Maggie  Tulliver 
Js  supposed  to  be  George  Eliot  herself.     In  the  story  she  is  in 
every  way  attractive  until  she  falls  in  love. 

When  we  speak  of  the  hero  of  a  novel,  we  do  not  mean  a  man 
of  unusual  courage.  The  hero  of  a  novel  is  simply  its  leading 
character.  It  is  the  hero  who  gives  his  name  to  Silas  Marner 
(1861).  He  is  a  poor  weaver  who  saves  as  much  money  as 
he  can.  He  is  robbed,  and  through  a  little  child  is  led  to 
enjoy  real  happiness.  As  in  her  previous  novels,  George 
Eliot  endeavors  to  show  that^  sooner  jor__  later  sin  Brings 
punishment. 

Later  Novels  and  Other  Works.  —  Florence  in  the  time  of- 
Savonarola  (1452-1498)  is  the  background  of  Romola  (1863), 
This  historical  novel  is  most  carefully  executed.  The 
authoress  took  pains  to  be  accurate,  but  she  lacked  the  imagi- 
nation necessary  to  inspire  scenes  so  remote.  Some  of  its 
passages  have  dramatic  power. 

In  Felix  Holt  (1866)  George  Eliot  returned  to  English 
scenes.  In  real  life  Felix  Holt  was  a  labor  agitator  named 
John  Farn,  a  weaver  with  a  natural  gift  of  oratory.  Middle- 
march  (1871-1872)  deals  with  thejnarriage  question.  One  of 
the  characters,  Caleb  Garth,  is  believed  to  have  a  resemblance 
to  the  father  of  the  authoress.  Daniel  Deronda  (1876),  like 
the  two  previous  novels,  is  a  thoughtful  study  of  human 
motives.  It  contains  too  many  uncommon  words  to  be 
very  popular.  George  Eliot  regarded  it  as  her  finest  work, 
but  some  readers  do  not  agree  with  this  opinion. 

Besides  her  well-known  poem  The  Spanish  Gypsy  (1868), 
the  more  notable  of  her  other  works  is  the  Impressions  of 
Theophrastus  Such  (1879),  a  collection  of  essays.  In  1880, 
a  few  months  before  her  death,  she  became  the  wife  of  John 
Walter  Cross. 

George  Eliot's  Place  in  Literature.  —  George  Eliot  had  a 
2c 


386 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


more  serious  purpose  in  her  art  than  most  of  her  predecessors. 

In  artistic  skill  she  is  in  no  way  superior  to  Jane  Austen, 

who  was  the  pioneer  of 
realistic  fiction  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  Each 
woman  is  a  realist,  each 
possesses  a  sense  of  humor, 
each  is  strongest  in  de- 
picting village  scenes  of 
English  life. 

George  Eliot  may  be 
regarded  as  the  founder 
of  the  psychological  novel, 
that  is,  of  the  novel  in 
which  the  development  of 
human  character  is  mi- 
nutely described.  She 
excels  in  de^i^m^jthe 
struggles  of  the  human 
soul.  She  insists  that 


FIG.  143.  —  Cheyne  Walk,  Chelsea,  where 
George  Eliot  died. 


fate  depends  upon  a  proper  or  improper  use  of  the  divine 
power  within  each  human  being.  Her  literary  fame  rests 
mainly  upon  her  earlier  novels,  written  at  a  time  wrhen  her 
body  and  brain  were  at  their  best.  Fewer  shadows  hover 
over  those  earlier  works.  They  are  more  natural  and  vigor- 
ous, though  they  never  attain  the  fire  and  vigor  of  Charlotte 
Bronte's  works.  In  depth  of  thought  George  Eliot  occupies 
a  high  place  among  novelists  of  the  Victorian  period. 

JOHN  RUSKIN  (1819-1900) 

The  Land  of  Lome  in  Argyleshire,  Scotland,  is  the  original 
home  of  the  Macdougalls  and  the  Ruskins,  who  were  noted 
for  their  generosity  and  their  upright  character.  This  section 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


387 


From  a  photograph 


of  country  has  not  yet  found  a  Scott  to  make  its  natural 
beauty  known  to  the  world.  A  few  miles  east  of  Loch 
Etive  is  Barraglas  nan  Rusgan, 
the  Gaelic  for  Grey-green  ridge 
of  the  Ruskins.  Among  the 
Ruskins  wrounded  at  the  battle 
of  Sherrifmuir  in  1715,  one  young 
man  was  cared  for  by  a  Perth- 
shire farmer,  whose  daughter  the 
soldier  married.  He  was  the 
direct  ancestor  of  John  Ruskin, 
whose  grandfather  left  Perth  for 
England. 

John  Ruskin,  the_ 
critics-first  saw  the  light 
London.  His  mother  induced 
him  by  steady  daily  toil  to  learn 
long  chapters  of  the  Bible  by 
heart.  This  discipline,  "  patient, 
accurate,  and  resolute/'  helped 
"  to  make  every  word  of  the 
Scriptures  familiar  to  my  ear  in 
habitual  music."  The  boy  had  a  taste  for  drawing  as  well 
as  literature.  In  Prceterita  (Things  of  the  Past,  1885-1889) 
he  admits  that  it  was  Byron  who,  "  though  he  could  not 
teach  me  to  love  mountain  and  sea  more  than  I  did  in 
childhood,  first  animated  them  for  me  with  the  sense  of 
real  human  nobleness  and  grief."  In  his  eighteenth  year  he 
entered  Christ  Church  College,  Oxford,  where  he  gained  a 
prize  for  English  poetry. 

Art  Criticism.  —  In  1843  Ruskin  produced  the  first  volume 
of  Modern^Painters  (1843-1860).  The  object  of  the  book 
was  to  protest  against  shallow  and  false  criticism  of  the  work 
of  J.  M.  W.  Turner  (1775-1851),  the  English  landscape 


FIG.   144.  —  John  Ruskin. 


388  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

painter.  Ruskin  tried  to  make  art  appeal  to  every  person 
of  intelligence.  In  three  additional  volumes  he  compared 
the  great  painters  of  Florence  and  Venice  with  Turner. 
Soon  Ruskin  began  to  be  recognized  as  an  art-critic  second 
to  none. 

The  following  passage  is  from  the  second  edition  of  Modern 
Painters.  Its  music  may  serve  to  show  why  Ruskin  is  re- 
garded as  a  master  of  English  prose. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  more  impressive  scene  on  earth  than 
the  solitary  extent  of  the  Campagna  of  Rome  under  evening 
light.  Let  the  reader  imagine  himself  for  the  moment  with- 
drawn from  the  sounds  and  motion  of  the  living  world,  and 
sent  forth  alone  into  this  wild  and  wasted  plain.  The  earth 
yields  and  crumbles  beneath  his  foot,  tread  he  never  so  lightly, 
for  its  substance  is  white,  hollow,  and  carious,  like  the  dusty 
wreck  of  the  bones  of  men.  The  long  knotted  grass  waves 
and  tosses  feebly  in  the  evening  wind,  and  the  shadows  of  its 
motion  shake  feverishly  along  the  banks  of  ruin  that  lift 
themselves  to  the  sunlight.  Hillocks  of  mouldering  earth 
heave  around  him,  as  if  the  dead  beneath  were  struggling  in 
their  sleep.  Scattered  blocks  of  black  stone,  four-square 
remnants  of  mighty  edifices,  not  one  left  upon  another,  lie 
upon  them  to  keep  them  down. 

Ruskin's  Seven  Lamps  of  Architecture  (1849)  and  Stones 
of  Venice  (1851-1853)  are  brilliant  attempts  at  reform  in 
domestic  and  church  architecture.  He  pleads  eloquently 
for  the  Gothic  type,  which  he  regards  as  lending  itself  most 
readily  to  all  purposes,  common  or  uncommon. 

Social  and  Political  Works.  —  Besides  many  works  on  the 
fine  arts,  Ruskin  wrote  upon  social  and  political  topics.  He 
believed  that  there  can  be  no  true  art  without  morality,  and 
no  morality  where  poverty  and  ignorance  flourish.  In 
order  to  produce  the  conditions  essential  to  art,  he  became 
a  social  reformer,  like  William  Morris,  the  poet.  In  his 
Past  and  Present  Carlyle  had  predicted  the  advent  of  free 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  389 

libraries,  free  education,  and  land  reform.  Ruskin  did  much 
to  carry  out  the  prophesies  of  one  whom  he  reverently 
called  his  "  dear  master/1 

Among  moorland  farmers  there  was  a  big  sale  of  Notes 
on  the  Construction  of  Sheep  Folds  (1851).  These  gentlemen 
lost  interest  in  the  book  when  they  discovered  that  it  gave 
nothing  more  than  hints  as  to  reform  in  church  government. 

Political  economy  is  the  science  which  treats  of  the  pro- 
duction of  national  wealth.  On  this  subject  Ruskin  wrote 
four  essays  entitled  Unto  this  Last  (1862).  He  believed  that 
that  nation  has  most  wealth  which  brings  forth  the  greatest 
proportion  of  good  and  happy  men.  Every  child  should  be 
taught  a  trade  by  the  government ;  all  men  who  desired 
work  should  be  able  to  secure  it  from  the  government;  the 
old  and  destitute  should  have  all  reasonable  comforts 
through  government  pensions. 

Ruskin  himself  says  that  the  essence  of  all  his  social  and 
political  teaching  may  be  found  in  two  books —  Unto  this 
Last  and  Sesame  and  Lilies  (1866).  The  latter  is  by  far 
the  most  widely  read  of  all  these  books.  Sesame  is  a  word 
borrowed  from  the  Oriental  story  of  Ali  Baba  and  the  Forty 
Thieves,  a  story  found  in  the  Arabian  Nights'  Entertainment. 
This  word  opens  the  hiding-place  of  treasures.  The  treasures 
to  which  Ruskin  refers  are  in  good  books.  He  shows  how 
books  should  be  read.  Taking  illustrations  from  Shake- 
speare and  Scott  and  Dante,  he  also  showrs  how  to  honor 
women,  and  how  women  may  become  worthy  of  honor. 

Two  sets  of  letters  were  addressed  to  the  workmen  of 
England.  The  first  he  called  Time  and  Tide  (1864),  the 
second  Fors  Clavigera  (1871-1884).  Ruskin  explained  the 
latter  title  by  remarking  that  the  Latin  fors  is  the  best  part 
of  the  English  words  force,  fortitude,  and  fortune.  The  root 
of  the  adjective  clavigerais  either  clava  (a  club),  clams  (a  key), 
or  claims  (a  nail),  and  gero  (I  carry).  Fors  the  Club-bearer 


390  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

—  the  man  with  the  big  stick  —  represents  Hercules  or 
Action.  The  Key-bearer  is  Ulysses  or  Patience.  The 
Nail-bearer  is  Lycurgus  or  Law. 

Later  Years.  —  Ruskin  spent  almost  all  his  great  wealth 
in  helping  those  in  poverty.  In  1867  he  was  a  lecturer  at 
the  University  of  Cambridge ;  two  years  later  he  was  Pro- 
fessor of  Fine  Arts  at  Oxford.  For  over  twenty  years  he 
lived  quietly  at  Brantwood,  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Coniston, 
in  Lancashire.  He  died  in  1900. 

Ruskin's  Place  in  Literature.  —  As  a  master  of  English 
prose,  Ruskin  at  his  best  stands  alone  in  the  history  of  litera- 
ture. Influenced  by  Carlyle  in  his  views  of  moral  and  social 
questions,  he  borrowed  from  no  predecessor  his  insight  into 
beauty  in  all  its  forms.  At  times  his  passion  leads  him  to 
use  imagery  to  excess ;  at  times  his  earnestness  carries  him 
a  long  way  before  he  stops  to  take  breath  at  a  period. 
On  the  other  hand,  Ruskin  employs  all  the  Sfte^-quaJitiej, 
of  prose  rhythm  like  a  magician.  The  more  delicate  beauties 
of  rhythm  and  harmony  may  never  reach  the  ear  that  is 
heavy.  In  childhood  the  great  art-critic  became  attuned 
to  the  harmonies  of  the  English  Bible,  and  these  harmonies 
were  caught  and  enriched  by  his  genius. 

No  English  prose  writer  seems  to  have  penned  so  many 
passages  that  are  impressive  and  suggestive,  passages 
touched  with  music  and  majesty.  An  occasional  lack  of 
self-restraint  appears  to  be  the  only  flaw  in  his  wcrffc  ff"tef 
had  learned  to  curtail  some  of  his  sentences,  if  he  had  bridled 
his  impetuous  imagination,  he  could  have  been  prose  monarch 
of  the  world  of  letters.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  in 
lucidity  and  purity,  in  wit  and  ease,  in  mastery  of  cadence, 
Ruskin  has  few  serious  rivals  among  writers  of  English 
prose. 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD  391 

RICHARD  DODDRIDGE  BLACKMORE  (1825-1900) 

The  Cornish  peninsula  in  southwestern  England,  compris- 
ing the  counties  of  Devon  and  Cornwall,  has  for  many  a 
century  been  linked  with  legends  of  King  Arthur  as  well  as 
with  the  names  of  Raleigh  and  other  daring  seafarers.  Need 
we  wonder  that  a  region  steeped  in  memories  of  bygone  glory 
should  have  prompted  a  romance  so  successful  as  Lorna 
Doone  (1869)  ? 

Its  author  was  Richard  Doddridge  Blackmore,  a  Berkshire 
man  who  received  his  early  education  at  Tiverton  in  Devon- 
shire, the  very  town  in  which  John  Ridd,  the  hero  of  Lorna 
Doone,  attended  school.  It  was  neither  his  volumes  of 
verse  (1854-1860),  nor  stories  such  as  Clara  Vaughan  (1864), 
but  the  wholesome  kindly  atmosphere  of  his  masterpiece 
that  endeared  Blackmore  to  the  cultivated  public.  Lorna 
Doone  is  one  of  the  few  works  of  prose  fiction  that  widens 
its  circle  of  admirers  as  the  years  pass  onward.  The  hero, 
as  in  Defoe's  stories,  tells  the  story  in  a  modest  manly  fashion. 
The  sincerity  of  this  love  romance  is  rendered  attractive  by 
the  rhythmic  buoyant  style  of  the  narrative. 

Science  and  Literature 

We  have  already  observed  that  the  theories  of  Darwin, 
Spencer,  and  other  thinkers  deeply  affected  imaginative 
literature,  especially  during  the  latter  half  of  the  Victorian 
period.  Some  of  their  ideas  disturbed  the  faith  of  many 
pious  people.  The  scientists  endeavored  to  explain  the  way 
in  which  the  world  has  developed. 

Among  the  most  popular  exponents  of  scientific  thought 
were  John  Tyndall  (1820-1893)  and  Thomas  Henry  Huxley 
(1825-1895).  When  Huxley  alludes  to  the  religious  beliefs 
of  primitive  tribes,  his  statements  have  to  be  accepted  with 


392  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

caution,  for  at  times  he  is  mistaken.  His  Autobiography 
(1894),  like  Franklin's,  is  well  worth  reading.  His  Lay 
Sermons  (1870),  clear  and  vigorous,  include  addresses  on 
Improving  Natural  Knowledge  (1866),  A  Liberal  Education 
(1868),  and  A  Piece  of  Chalk  (1868).  The  last  of  these  was 
first  published  in  Macmillaris  Magazine.  Here  is  a  brief 
extract : 

Sea-beasts,  such  as  the  walrus,  now  restricted  to  the  extreme 
north,  paddled  about  where  birds  had  twittered  among  the 
topmost  twigs  of  the  fir-trees.  How  long  this  state  of  things 
endured  we  know  not,  but  at  length  it  came  to  an  end.  The 
upheaved  glacial  mud  hardened  into  the  soil  of  modern  Norfolk. 
Forests  grew  once  more,  the  wolf  and  the  beaver  replaced  the 
reindeer  and  the  elephant;  and  at  length  what  we  call  the 
history  of  England  dawned. 

GEORGE  MEREDITH  (1828-1909) 

Meredith  is  a  Welsh  surname.  George  Meredith,  like 
Dickens,  was  a  native  of  Portsmouth.  Part  of  his  educa- 
tion was  received  in  the  Moravian  School  at  Neuwied  on 
the  Rhine.  When  he  returned  from  Germany,  he  engaged 
for  a  time  in  the  study  of  law  and  in  journalism,  writing  for 
the  London  Morning  Post.  In  1849  he  married ;  there  was 
a  misunderstanding  followed  by  a  separation.  Three  years 
after  his  wife's  death  in  1861,  he  married  again  and  lived 
happily  at  a  cottage  on  Box  Hill  in  Surrey.  From  the 
window  of  the  room  in  which  he  studied  and  wrote,  one  of 
the  finest  views  in  Surrey  stretches  out  in  a  panorama  of 
hill  and  dale,  melting  away  in  the  deep  blue  lines  of  the 
horizon.  In  1866  he  was  a  war-correspondent  in  Austria. 
After  Tennyson's  death  Meredith  was  chosen  as  president  of 
the  Incorporated  Society  of  Authors.  For  years  he  was  a 
publisher's  reader  as  well  as  poet  and  novelist.  When  he 
died  in  1909,  he  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  cemetery  at  Dork- 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


393 


ing.     Barrie  and  other  eminent  men  of  letters  were  among 
the  mourners  at  the  funeral. 

Earlier  Novels.  —  The  first  of  Meredith's  more  notable 
prose  works  was  The  Shaving  of  Shagpat  (1856),  a  tale  as 
fanciful  as  its  title.  Its 
Oriental  splendor,  its 
pungent  wit,  and  its  faint 
savor  of  a  distant  moral, 
leave  an  impression  upon 
the  memory.  Meredith's 
first  great  novel  was  The 
Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel 
(1859).  It  is  the  history 
;of  the  life  and  training 
of  a  young  man  who  is 
thwarted  by  his  father  in 
a  love  affair.  In  this 
novel  as  well  as  in  its 
successors  are  passages  of 
uncommon  beauty. 

Brilliant  in  style  and 
in  thought  are  Evan 
Harrington  (1861),  Sandra 
Belloni  (1864),  and  Rhoda 
Fleming  (1865).  Prob- 
ably each  of  these  has 
more  admirers  than  Vittoria  (1867),  Harry  Richmond  (1871), 
or  Beauchamp's  Career  (1876).  Like  George  Eliot's  prose 
works,  all  of  them  are  psychologicaHiovels  with  a  purpose, 
yet  their  style  is  very  differenffrom  hers.  That  is  to  say, 
they  are  novels  whose  main  interest  is  in  portraying  the 
motives  j)f  men  and  women  rather  than  their  actions. 

Later  Novels.  —  It  was  The  Egoist  (1879)  that  won  for 
Meredith  a  reputation  as  a  master  of  high  comedy,  that  is,  of 


FIG.  145.  —  George  Meredith. 


394  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

comedy  among  persons  of  high  social  standing.  An  egoist, 
as  most  of  us  know,  is  a  man  who  takes  himself  too  seriously, 
a  man  who  considers  things  to  be  good  or  bad  according  as 
they  affect  himself.  Sir  Willoughby  Patterne  is  the  snob 
or  egoist.  He  is  tested  by  love,  and  his  true  nature  rises  to 
the  surface.  Meredith's  purpose  in  this  novel  and  in  others 
is  to  improve  society  by  causing  people  to  smile  at  their  own 
weaknesses. 

Although  the  novels  which  preceded  Diana  of  the  Crossways 
(1885)  contain  not  a  few  pictures  of  womanhood,  it  is  here 
that  the  author  first  portrays  women  as  frankly  as  men  are 
portrayed.  His  heroines  are  beautiful  because  they  are 
healthy.  Diana,  a  woman  of  culture,  appears  as  a  belle 
with  whom  various  men  profess  to  be  in  love.  At  a  quaint 
old  house  known  as  the  Crossways  Mr.  Warwick  proposes 
to  her  and  is  accepted.  Lord  Dannisburgh's  nephew  fool- 
ishly confides  a  State  secret  to  her,  and  she  passes  it  on  to 
the  editor  of  a  daily  paper.  Meredith  declares  that  women, 
like  men,  have  rights  of  self-development.  If  Diana  may 
be  taken  to  express  his  thoughts,  he  does  not  fear  the  future. 
He  has  a  vision  of  nobler  conditions  for  womanhood : 

Look  lady,  where  yon  river  winds  its  line 
Toward  sunset,  and  receives  on  breast  and  face 
The  splendour  of  fair  life  :  to  be  divine 
'Tis  nature  bids  you  be  to  nature  true ; 
Flowing  with  beauty,  lending  earth  your  grace, 
Reflecting  heaven  in  clearness  you.1 

—  Ballad  of  Fair  Ladies  in  Revolt. 

Some  of  Meredith's  plots  hinge  on  unusual  circumstances 
and  exceptional  people,  yet  at  all  times  he  is  impelled  to 
express  his  sense  of  justice,  a  virtue  for  which  few  of  us  offer 
a  sincere  prayer.  In  the  next  three  novels,  as  in  several  of 

1  By  permission  of  Scribner's. 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  395 

the  earlier,  the  novelist  pleads  for  the  deliverance  of  woman- 
hood from  unjust  laws  or  from  those  influences  that  hinder 
her  highest  development.  In  One  of  our  Conquerors  (1890) 
the  author  strives  too  eagerly  for  sparkling  epigrams.  In 
trying  to  be  concise,  he  sometimes  becomes  obscure.  Of  the 
heroines  in  Lord  Ormont  and  his  Aminta  (1894)  and  The 
Amazing  Marriage  (1895),  Carinthia  in  the  latter  is  the  more 
satisfactory ;  indeed,  Aminta  is  one  of  the  least  successful  of 
Meredith's  heroines.  Carinthia  seems  to  stand  as  a  type  of 
the  strong-willed  woman  who  lived  in  the  old  coaching  days 
before  duelling  had  gone  out  of  fashion.  The  book  illustrates 
the  supreme  value  of  respect  as  the  basis  of  love.  Physical 
loveliness  is  of  less  importance. 

Poems.  —  Meredith  issued  Poems  (1851),  Modern  Love 
(1862),  and  Poems  and  Lyrics  (1883).  His  poetry  was  col- 
lected into  a  single  volume  in  1912.  His  sympathy  for  what 
he  regards  as  the  wrongs  of  womanhood  is  far  more  decisive 
than  Tennyson's  in  The  Princess.  This  attitude  he  has 
expressed  in  poems  such  as  The  Sage  Enamoured,  where 
he  declares  that  sin's  punishment  is  certain,  so  certain  that 
the  outcome  is  "  the  very  spirit  maimed." 

In  the  novels  t^^MrartfTfi  hiking  tn  fash  inn  a."h1p  society, 
whereas  in  the  poetry  a  hearty  interest  is  shown  in  men  of 
humbler  rank.  A  Stave  of  Roving  Tim  is  as  democratic  as 
Burns's  Jolly  Beggars.  A  feeling  of  fellowship  is  the  key- 
note of  poems  such  as  Grandfather  Bridgeman  and  The  Patriot 
Engineer.  Democracy,  or  the  sense  of  brotherhood,  opens 
a  man's  eyes  to  discern  "  the  Great  Unseen."  As  he  puts 
it  in  The  Test  of  Manhood  — 

that  way  the  road, 

With  his  dark-lantern  mind,  unled,  alone, 
Wearifully  through  forest-tracks  unsown, 
He  travels,  urged  by  some  internal  good.1 

1  By  permission  of  Scribner's. 


396  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Meredith's  Place  in  Literature.  —  In  adroit  portrayal  of 
human  motives,  Meredith  is  among  the  foremost  writers  of 
modern  times!  His  world,  like  that  of  Browning,  is  the  world 
j)fJJl£LSQuL  For  him  the  body  is  but  the  husk  of  life.  Its 
sensations  are  petty,  except  so  far  as  they  express  the  secret 
comedy  or  tragedy  of  the  mind.  ^  Meredith  was  a  man  of  the 
world,  a  man  who  had  observed  its  faults  and  follies,  yet  he 
never  lost  his  temper  or  his  belief  in  humanity.  It  is  comedy 
rather  than  humor  or  satire  that  appeals  to  him  most,  and 
in  it  is  a  little  of  the  sqJt  of  irony. 

Meredith  possesses  the  fervor  of  imagination  that  belongs 
to  a  true  lyric  poet.  In  either  verse  or  prose  he  can  be  so 
simple  that  a  child  may  enjoy  him,  or  he  can  exhibit  so  many 
mannerisms  of  style  that  he  must  be  read  with  patience. 
He  can  make  his  phrases  trill  like  a  chorus  of  birds  in  the 
springtime,  or  he  can  hush  the  melody  so  that  it  escapes  the 
ear  that  is  dull. 

It  may  be  urged  that  there  is  little  action  in  Meredith's 
works,  yet  for  many  readers  there  is  ample  compensation 
in  the  frequent  daintiness,  choiceness  of  phrase,  and  beauty  of 
romance  that  enrich  the  dominant  realism.  He  is  earnest 
in  his  purpose  even  when  he  is  most  witty.  He  is  consci- 
entious but  not  morose.  It  is  this  union  of  bold  char- 
iot pr-d  rawing  with  cheeriness  of  outlook  that  constitutes 
his  chief  glory. 

WALTER  HORATIO  PATER  (1839-1894) 

Walter  Horatio  Pater,  whose  father's  birthplace  was  in 
America,  went  to  Oxford  in  1858.  He  was  associated  with 
college  life  until  his  death  in  1894.  During  the  last  quarter 
of  the  nineteenth  century  he  gained  distinction  as  a  critic 
of  art  and  literature.  A  man  of  unusual  modesty  and  re- 
finement, he  had  no  time  to  be  in  a  hurry.  That  is  to  say, 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  397 

he  put  conscience  into  his  work.  He  believed  that  neg- 
lected elements  are  sometimes  the  most  significant.  In  the 
last  essay  of  his  Studies  in  the  History  of  the  Renaissance 
(1873),  he  remarks : 

Every  moment  some  form  grows  perfect  in  hand  or  face; 
some  tone  on  the  hills  or  the  sea  is  choicer  than  the  rest ;  some 
mood  of  passion  or  insight  or  intellectual  excitement  is  irre- 
sistibly real  and  attractive  to  us  —  for  that  moment  only.  .  .  . 
How  shall  we  pass  most  swiftly  from  point  to  point,  and  be 
present  always  at  the  focus  where  the  greatest  number  of  vital 
forces  unite  in  their  purest  energy  ?  To  burn  always  with  this 
hard  gem-like  flame,  to  maintain  this  ecstasy,  is  success  in  life.1 

This  passage  is  the  key  to  all  of  Pater's  criticism.  Any 
topic  may  be  discussed  from  different  points  of  view.  He 
tries  to  focus  his  energy  upon  some  one  characteristic  and 
shows  what  it  means  for  him.  This  is  what  he  does  in  his 
famous  essay  on  the  painter  Leonardo  da  Vinci  (1452-1519) 
and  in  the  other  essays  of  his  Renaissance.  He  finds  new 
values  in  human  productions.  He  is  a  creative  critic. 

The  fruit  of  Pater's  classical  studies  is  partly  seen  in  his 
novel  Marius  the  Epicurean  (1885).  The  scene  is  laid  in  the 
second  century  of  the  Christian  era,  at  a  time  when  the  old 
pagan  beliefs  of  Rome  were  yielding  to  Christianity.  The 
book  is  notable  for  its  pictures  of  the  manners  of  the  age. 
Some  of  the  character-drawing,  however,  is  scarcely  satis- 
factory. 

In  his  Imaginary  Portraits  (1837)  and  in  the  later  as  well  as 
the  earlier  works,  Pater  at  times  is  so  careful  in  his  choice 
of  words  and  phrases  that  he  seems  to  sacrifice  vigor  and 
naturalness,  yet  there  is  no  question  about  the  charm  of 
his  style  as  a  whole.  Few  men  have  ever  equalled  him  in  his 
ability  to  express  subtle  shades  of  thought  with  dignity  and 
delicacy.  Some  of  his  best  qualities  take  their  color  from 
Ruskin. 

1  Copyright  by  The  Macmillan  Company. 


398  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

THOMAS  HARDY  (1840-        ) 

Thomas  Hardy,  a  native  of  Rockhampton  in  Dorsetshire, 
began  in  his  sixteenth  year  to  serve  his  apprenticeship  as  an 
architect,  specializing  in  church  construction.  He  was  very 
successful  in  his  profession  when  he  turned  to  literature. 
At  the  age  of  thirty-five  he  married  Miss  Lavinia  Gifford. 
After  spending  some  time  in  London,  he  returned  to  the 
county  of  his  childhood  and  in  1885  took  up  his  residence  at 
Dorchester. 

Besides  poems  and  poetic  dramas,  Mr.  Hardy  has  written 
novels  whose  scenes  are  laid  in  Wessex,  a  name  which  he  had 
given  to  a  few  of  the  southwestern  counties  of  England. 
Some  of  the  more  notable  prose  works  are  Under  the  Green- 
wood Tree  (1872),  Far  from  the  Madding  Crowd  (1874),  The 
Return  of  the  Native  (1878),  probably  the  best  of  the  novels, 
Tess  of  the  D'Urbervilles  (1891),  and  Jude  the  Obscure 
(1895).  The  last  of  these  is  the  least  satisfactory. 

If  we  may  judge  from  these  realisticjjA^fils,  Mr.  Hardy 
is  a  disciple  of  Darwin.  Natural  laws  dominate  the  conduct 
of  his  characters,  who  are  drawn  with  power  and  clearness. 
Apparently  the  novelist  has  no  very  exalted  opinion  of  woman- 
hood, for  all  his  women  are  creatures  swayed  by  whim  or 
emotion.  The  scenes  that  he  creates  are  interesting  even 
when  they  impress  us  as  unreal.  The  plots_arej^-ell  con- 
structed, and  the  diction  is  often  of  great  beauty.  In  spite 
of  the  rather  gloomy  atmosphere  of  his  works,  Mr.  Hardy 
is  one  of  the  most  admired  of  modern  English  novelists. 

ROBERT  Louis  STEVENSON  (1850-1894) 

According  to  his  birth-year,  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  a 
native  of  Edinburgh,  was  the  last  of  the  great  Victorian 
writers.  His  father  and  grandfather  were  the  ablest  light- 


THE  VICTORIAN  PERIOD 


399 


From  a  photograph 


w  —  ) 


house  engineers  in  Brit- 
ain. Even  in  childhood 
he  was  fond  of  reading 
and  liked  to  put  his  im- 
pressions into  verse  and 
prose.  In  his  seven- 
teenth year  he  entered 
the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh. In  order  to  for- 
get the  poor  health 
which  he  had  inherited 
from  his  mother,  he 
sometimes  played  boy- 
ish pranks.  Once  he 
shocked  the  fashionable 
Scots  people  of  his  na- 
tive city  by  gravely  ap- 
pearing at  an  evening 
party  in  a  flannel  shirt. 

Stevenson's   father   desired   his  son   to   become   a   civil 

engineer,  but  al- 
lowed him  to 
study  law.  His 
heart,  however, 
was  in  literature. 
The  climate  of 
his  native  land 
did  not  suit  the 
young  Scotsman, 
so  he  went  to 
France  and  other 
countries.  In 

Courtesy  of  Hon.  J.  H.  Mulligan,  formerly  U.  S.  Consul  at  Samoa       .,  00  _    ,  .     , 

T-,      -,._      OA  ,  1880  he  married 

FIG.  147.  —  Stevenson  s  schooner     Equator     at 

Apia,  Samoa.  Mrs.  ranny  Os- 


FIG.  146.  —  Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 


400 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


bourne,  a  California  lady  whom  he  had  met  in  France. 
Eight  years  later  he  was  writing  for  Scribner's  Magazine. 
The  same  year  he  promised  to  contribute  articles  for  Mr. 
S.  S.  McClure.  Stevenson  started  on  a  cruise  among  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific,  and  in  1889  he  bought  an  estate  on 
the  island  of  Samoa. 

The  following  year  with  his  family  he  settled  in  Samoa, 
and  there  he  worked  himself  to  death.  In  1893  when  he 
became  too  feeble  to  dictate  by  voice,  this  courageous  man 
cheerfully  began  to  dictate  St.  Ives  in  the  deaf-and-durnb 
alphabet.  This  tale  is  one  of  the  works  containing  allu- 
sions to  old  days  at  Swanston,  the  hamlet  where  Stevenson 
passed  some  of  his  boyhood  days.  Death  came  to  him  in 
the  winter  of  1894  while  he  was  engaged  upon  the  masterly 
novel,  Weir  of  Hermiston. 

On  the  mountain  summit  of  Samoa  is  his  tomb  up  toward 
the  stars,  yet  within  sound  of  the  murmuring  sea-waves. 

Peace  be  to  the  ashes  of 
Louis  Stevenson,  the 
gentle  and  the  gallant- 
hearted,  who  fell  like  a 
hero  in  the  midst  of  life's 
battle.  At  times  there 
must  have  been  a  silent 
yearning  for  the  hills 
and  glens  of  the  far-off 
motherland,  but  neither 
sickness  nor  exile  could 
vanquish  that  bright 
spirit.  With  his 
Tofa,  Tusitala !  Good-by, 


Courtesy  of  Hon.  J.  H.  Mulligan 

FIG.  148.  —  Samoa   home   of   Stevenson. 
Cross  marks  site  of  his  grave. 


Samoan  friends  we  may  say, 
Teller  of  Tales  !  " 

Essays.  —  Stevenson  is  never  wearisome.     His  first  notable 
essay  writing  is  An  Inland  Voyage  (1878),  which  he  planned 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  401 

as  a  "  jolly  book  of  gossip."  The  essayist  and  his  friend  Sir 
Walter  Simpson  started  in  1876  on  a  canoe  trip  from  Antwerp 
in  Belgium.  The  little  book  is  simply  a  humorous  account 
of  a  vacation  abroad.  In  Travels  with  a  Donkey  (1879)  we 
see  Stevenson  buying  a  donkey  at  Monastier  for  sixty-five 
francs.  Donkey  though  she  was,  Mi^d^stiufijvas  highly  in- 
telligent. The  book  treats  of  travels  in  France.  The  first 
camping  out  in  a  wood  and  the  description  of  nature  in 
night-time  are  of  unusual  interest.  The  drollery  and  quiet 
fun  will  scarcely  blind  the  reader  to  the  graceful  style. 

Among  the  other  charming  essays  are  Virginibus  Pueris- 
que  (For  Girls  and  Boys,  1881),  Familiar  Studies  of  Men  and 
Books  (1882),  and  Memories  and  Portraits  (1887).  The  last 
of  these  works  explains,  in  the  essay  'entitled  A  College 
Magazine,  how  its  author  learned  to  write  with  skill. 

Novels.  —  In  numerous  books  and  pamphlets  Stevenson 
reached  all  classes  of  people,  young  and  old.  Besides  short 
stories  such  as  Will  o'  the  Mill,  he  wrote  novels  of  distinction. 
He  never  assumes  that  a  writer  knows  everything,  so  he  makes 
one  or  two  of  the  characters  tell  the  story.  This  gives  an  ap- 
pearance of  reality.  For  instance,  Jim  Hawkins  and  Doctor 
Livesey  in  Treasure  Island  (1882)  tell  what  occurred  in  the 
course  of  the  voyage  of  the  "  Hispaniola."  Narrated  with 
artistic  genius,  this  is  one  of  the  world's  choicest  pirate 
stories.  Not  only  boys,  but  scholarly  critics  like  Matthew 
Arnold,  have  found  it  most  attractive. 

Among  the  many  fascinating  stories  of  Stevenson,  it  is 
difficult  to  make  a  choice.  The  New  Arabian  Nights  (1882) 
deals  with  deeds  of  daring,  in  an  easy  whimsical  fashion. 
Dr.  Jekyll  and  Mr.  Hyde  (1886)  brings  out  the  details  of 
a  man  who  led  a  double  life.  Kidnapped  (1886)  is  a  his- 
torical novel  whose  plot  is  laid  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Its  pictures  of  life  and  society  are 
accurate.  Year  after  year  ships  left  British  ports  with  bands 

2D 


402  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

of  luckless  youths  who  had  been  misled  or  kidnapped.  Tn 
remote  cottages  lads  were  sometimes  taken  by  night  from 
their  beds,  and  parents  feared  to  let  children  out  of  doors  after 
sunset.  The  Master  of  Ballantrae(l889)  shows  some  strange 
characters.  Catriona  (1893),  a  sequel  to  Kidnapped,  is  a 
romance  named  after  a  sweet-voiced  Highland  maid  whose 
soul  is  clean,  bold,  and  impetuous.  The  kind-hearted  witty 
Barbara  Grant  is  another  of  its  well-drawn  characters. 

Poems.  —  Stevenson's  poems  include  The  Child's  Garden 
of  Verses  (1885),  Ballads  (1890),  and  Poems  and  Ballads 
(1895).  He  kept  his  youthful  spirit  longer  than  any  writer 
in  English  literary  history.  We  are  all  young  again  as  we  read 
The  Sick  Child. 

Child.     I  have  a  fear  that  I  cannot  say. 

What  have  I  done,  and  what  do  I  fear, 
And  why  are  you  crying,  mother  dear  ? 
Mother.     An  hour  or  two  more  and  God  is  so  kind, 
The  day  shall  be  blue  in  the  window-blind, 
Then  shall  my  child  go  sweetly  asleep, 
And  dream  of  the  birds  and  the  hills  of  sheep. 

Stevenson's  Place  in  Literature.  —  Stevenson  is  the  most 
eminent  writer  of  pure  romance  during  the  Victorian  period. 
Sometimes  big  words  conceal  small  thoughts,  but  he  never 
tries  to  play  such  tricks.  Behind  the  simplicity  and  grace 
of  his  style  is  the  insight  of  a  thinker  as  well  as  a  stylist.  He 
never  parades  his  character-drawing,  because  his  sense  of 
humor  and  his  artistic  instinct  hold  him  in  check.  He  de- 
lineates Alan  Breck  and  other  characters  with  a  few  masterly 
-strokes—rather  than  by  the  slow  imposing  method  of"~ti 
psychologist. 

Thought  and  imagination  are  plentiful  in  Stevenson,  yet 
his  essays,  poems,  and  novels  are  so  easy  to  read  that  a  care- 
less reader  may  be  misled.  Under  the  buoyancy  and  boyish 
dash  of  the  man  is  a  stern  sense  of  dutv  that  caused  him  to 


THE   VICTOEIAN  PERIOD  403 

detest  work  which  was  merely  good  enough.  No  man  ever 
put  more  conscience  into  his  productions.  He  has  not  the 
creative  power  of  Scott,  but  he  is  superior  to  his  master  in 
diction  and  at  times  in  plot  construction. 

It  was  the  spiritual  vitality  of  Stevenson  that  kept  him 
alert  and  joyous,  responsive  to  all  that  is  tender  and  odd  and 
mysterious,  quietly  accepting  the  gloom  and  the  gayety,  the 
tears  and  the  laughter,  of  his  fellow-men.  He  is  one  of  those 
idealists  who  can  make  the  lily  rise  unspotted  from  the  mire 
in  which  it  grows,  and  it  is  men  of  this  stamp  whom  the  world 
will  not  readily  forget.  Barrie,  Conan  Doyle,  and  twenty 
others  have  followed  in  his  footsteps.  They  admired  the 
spirit  of  the  man  who  wrote  in  the  Requiem  : 

Under  the  wide  and  starry  sky, 
Dig  the  grave  and  let  me  lie ; 
Glad  did  I  live  and  gladly  die, 
And  I  laid  me  down  with  a  will. 

SUMMARY 

1.  The  expansion  of  democratic  power  as  well  as  of  the 
arts  and  sciences  affected  both  society  and  literature  during 
the  Victorian  period. 

2.  Mrs.  Browning  and  Christina  Rossetti  were  the  ablest 
poetesses,  as  Tennyson  and  Browning  were  the   most  il- 
lustrious poets.     Tennyson's  The  Princess  contains  some  of 
his  choicest  lyrics.      Among  the  more  famous  sections  of  his 
Idylls  of   the    King  are  Gareth  and  Lynette,    Lancelot  and 
Elaine,   and    The  Passing  of  Arthur.     Browning's  simpler 
and  more  popular  works  include  poems  such    as  Cavalier 
Tunes,  The  Lost  Leader,  and   How   They  Brought  the  Good 
News. 

3.  Matthew  Arnold's  Sohrab  and  Rustum  is  only  one  of 
a  number  of  his  charming  poems.     He  was  the  most  influ- 
ential critic  of  his  time. 


404  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

4.  The  Pre-Raphaelite  Brotherhood,  a  group  of  artists 
and  poets,  had  the  poet  D.  G.  Rossetti  as  a  leader.     With 
him  were  Morris,  Swinburne,  and  others. 

5.  Fitzgerald,  Alfred  Austin,  Davidson,   and  Thompson 
were  poetic  stars  of  some  prominence. 

6.  The  first  of  the  Victorian  prose  writers  was  Carlyle, 
whose  Essay  on  Burns  is  the  most  familiar  of  his  shorter 
works.     Easier  to    read,  but  less   profound   in  thought,  is 
Macaulay,  whose  Life  of  Johnson,  Lord  Clive,  Warren  Hast- 
ings, and  other  essays  are  brilliant  in  style.     His  Lays  of 
Ancient  Rome  are  spirited  verses. 

7.  Newman,  like  Walter  Pater,  was  one  of  the  masters 
of  prose  style,  more  restrained  than  either  of  his  predecessors. 

8.  Never  were  so  many  novels  written  as  during  the  last 
century.     The    first  born    of  all    Victorian    novelists    was 
Thackeray,  whose  Henry  Esmond  is  a  masterpiece.     While 
he  was  in  America  he  lectured,  the  lectures  appearing  later 
in  a  book  entitled  English  Humourists.     More  widely  read 
than  Thackeray,  but  less  polished  in  style,  was  Dickens,  the 
author  of  David  Copperfield  and  other  delightful  specimens 
of  prose  fiction.     Among  those  whom  he  inspired  was  Mrs. 
Gaskell,  the  authoress  of  Cranford. 

9.  The  sisters  Bronte  and  George  Eliot,  though  different 
in  style,  are  the  most  talented  women  writers  of  Victorian 
prose.     George  Eliot's  Silas  Marner  is  a  short  romantic 
story  of  a  man  who  found  that  money  is  not  the  greatest 
thing  in  the  world. 

10.  Like  Walter  Pater,  Ruskin  was  distinguished  as  an 
art-critic  and  as  a  writer  of  beautiful  prose.     Influenced  by 
Carlyle,  he  was  also  a  social  reformer. 

11.  Scientific  ideas  were  simplified  through   the  public 
lectures  of  men  like  Huxley.     Some  of  these  addresses  were 
published  under  the  title  of  Lay  Sermons,  that  is,  addresses 
by  a  layman  rather  than  a  clergyman.     Three  of  the  best 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  405 

are  entitled  Improving  Natural  Knowledge,  A  Liberal  Educa- 
tion, and  A  Piece  of  Chalk.  Huxley,  whose  Autobiography 
is  written  in  forceful  English,  was  one  of  the  men  who 
affected  the  thought  of  Meredith  and  other  men  of  letters. 
12.  Stevenson's  Inland  Voyage  and  Trawls  with  a  Donkey 
have  been  enjoyed  by  most  people  who  have  read  them.  No 
one  needs  to  be  urged  to  become  acquainted  with  Blackmore's 
Lorna  Doone  or  Stevenson's  Treasure  Island. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  Name  some  of  the  women  who  won  fame  as  writers  of  verse  or 
prose  during  the  Victorian  period.     Compare  any  two  in  regard 
to  (a)  style  and  (6)  thought.     What  is  a  psychological  novel  ? 

2.  Who  wrote  some  of  the  great  English  elegies  ?     Which  of  Ten- 
nyson's poems  do  you  like  best  ?     Give  a  reason  for  your  answer. 
Who  is  the  leading  character  in  The  Princess  f     Why  was  Arthur 
selected  as  hero  of  the  Idylls  of  the  King  f    Write  an  essay  on  any 
one  of  the  idylls. 

3.  How  do  we  know  that  Browning  was  fond  of  horses  ?    Have 
you  memorized  any  of  his  verses  ?    Give  an  outline  of  either  Herve 
Riel  or  Pheidippides. 

4.  In  order  to  make  Arnold's  chief  poem  even  more  interesting, 
arrange  with  one  of  your  classmates  that  you  represent  one  charac- 
ter and  he  the  other.     Let  each  of  you  read  or  recite  as  if  you  were 
characters  in  a  play. 

5.  Explain  the  Pre-Raphaelite  and  the  Oxford  Movement.    What 
American  poet  influenced  Rossetti  ?     In  what  way  ? 

6.  Who  succeeded  Tennyson  as  poet  laureate  ? 

7.  In  which  works  do  the  following  quotations  appear  —  0  for 
the  touch  of  a  Vanished  hand;    God's  in  his  Heaven;    One  who 
never  turned  his  back ;   Success  sways  with  the  breath  of  heaven ; 
Give  me  to  dream  dreams  all  would  love  to  dream  ? 

8.  Why  do  many  people  enjoy  Carlyle's  Essay  on  Burns  f    Name 
any  of  his  other  works.     What  is  his  conception  of  history  ? 

9.  Indicate    Macaulay's    chief    strength    and    chief    weakness. 
Reproduce  in  your  own  words  the  substance  of  any  one  of  his  essays 
or  poems. 

10.  Draw  a  pen-portrait  or  a  sketch  in  words  of  any  of  the  heroes 


406  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

or  heroines  in  one  of  the  works  of  Thackeray,  Dickens,  Meredith,  or 
Stevenson.  To  what  extent  were  these  novelists  influenced  by 
democratic  or  by  aristocratic  ideas  ? 

11.  A  good  book  is  one  that  makes  you  try  to  be  kinder  or  nobler 
in  every  way.     What  is   your  impression  of   Thackeray's  or  of 
Stevenson's  essays? 

12.  Who  wrote  Crossing  the  Bar,  The  Earthly  Paradise,  Cranford, 
Sesame  and  Lilies,  Lorna  Doone,  Travels   with  a  Donkey  ?      Read 
one  or  more  of  these,  watching  the  rhythm  of  the  sentences  and 
the  vigor  or  beauty  of  the  language. 

ADDITIONAL   AUTHORS   WITH    CHIEF   WORKS 

Poets.  —  James  Clarence  Mangan  (1803-1840),  Dark  Rosaleen  ; 
William  Edmondstoune  Aytoun  (1813-1865),  Lays  of  the  Scottish 
Cavaliers;  Aubrey  de  Vere  (1814-1902),  Irish  Odes;  Arthur  Hugh 
Clough  (1819-1861),  Bpthie  of  Tober-na-Vuolich;  Coventry  Patmore 
(1823-1896),  The  Angel  in  the  House;  Sidney  Dobell  (1824-1874), 
The  Roman;  William  Allingham  (1824-1889),  Irish  Songs  and 
Poems;  Adelaide  Anne  Procter  (1825-1864),  Legends  and  Lyrics; 
Jean  Ingelow  (1830-1897),  Poems;  Sir  Edwin  Arnold  (1832-1904), 
The  Light  of  Asia;  Robert  Bridges  (1844-  ),  who  became  poet 
laureate  in  1913,  New  Poems;  W.  E.  Henley  (1849-1903),  Poems. 

Novelists. — Edward  George  Bulwer,  Lord  Lytton  "(1803-1873), 
Last  Days  of  Pompeii;  Charles  Lever  (1806-1872),  Charles  0 'Motley; 
Anthony  Trollope  (1815-1882),  Barchester  Towers;  James  Grant 
(1822-1887),  The  Romance  of  War;  Wilkie  Collins  (1824-1889), 
The  Woman  in  White;  Dinah  Maria  Craik  (1826-1877),  John 
Halifax,  Gentleman;  Charles  L.  Dodgson  (Lewis  Carroll,  1832- 
1898),  Alice  in  Wonderland;  Joseph  Henry  Shorthouse  (1834-1903), 
John  Inglesant;  William  Black  (1841-1898),  Madcap, Violet;  Mrs. 
Humphry  Ward  (1851-  ),  David  Grieve;  Rosa  Mulholland 
(1855-  ),  A  Round  Table  of  Stories. 

Miscellaneous  Prose  W riters.  —  John  Stuart  Mill  (1806-1873), 
Utilitarianism;  John  Brown  (1810-1882),  Rob  and  his  Friends, 
one  of  the  best  of  dog  stories ;  James  Anthony  Froude  (1818-1894) , 
History  of  England',  Henry  Thomas  Buckle  (1821-1862),  History 
of  Civilization;  Sir  Henry  Maine  (1822-1888),  Ancient  Law; 
Edward  Augustus  Freeman  (1823-1892),  History  of  the  Norman  Con- 
quest; Thompson,  William  (Lord  Kelvin)  (1824-1907),  The  Origin 
of  Life;  William  Stubbs  (1825-1901),  Constitutional  History  of  Eng- 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  407 

land;  Walter  Bagehot  (1826-1877),  Literary  Studies;  Richard  Holt 
Hutton  (1826-1897),  Literary  Essays;  Patrick  Weston  Joyce 
(1827-  ),  Old  Celtic  Romances;  Samuel  Rawson  Gardiner 
(1829-1902),  History  of  England;  Justin  McCarthy  (1830-1912), 
History  of  our  own  Times;  Frederic  Harrison  (1831-  ),  American 
Addresses;  Leslie  Stephen  (1832-1904),  History  of  English  Thought 
in  the  Eighteenth  Century;  John  Richard  Green  (1837-1883),  Short 
History  of  the  English  People;  John  Morley  (1838-  ),  Studies  in 
Literature;  William  Edward  Hartpole  Lecky  (1838-1903),  History 
of  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century;  James  Bryce  (1838-  ), 
The  American  Commonwealth;  John  Addington  Symonds  (1840-  i 
1893),  History  of  the  Renaissance  in  Italy;  Austin  Dobson  (1840- 
),  At  the  Sign  of  the  Lyre;  Edward  Dowden  (1843-1913), 
Studies  in  Literature;  Andrew  Lang  (1844-1912),  one  of  the  ablest 
men  of  letters  of  modern  times,  Adventures  among  Books  and 
many  other  works;  George  Edward  Bateman  Saintsbury  (1845- 
),  History  of  Criticism;  William  Leonard  Courtney  (1850- 
),  The  Feminine  Note  in  Fiction;  Augustine  Birrell  (1850- 
),  Men,  Women,  and  Books',  Sir  William  Robertson  Nicoll 
(1851-  ),  Round  of  the  Clock;  Robert  Bontine  Cunningham- 
Graham  (1852-  ),  Vanished  Arcadia;  Oscar  Wjlde  (1854-1900), 
The  Importance  of  Being  Earnest. 

SUPPLEMENTARY   READING 

Biographies  of  leading  writers  of  the  Victorian  period  are  in  the 
English  Men  of  Letters  series  (Macmillan),  $.40  each  and  in  the 
Great  Writers  series  (Scribner),  $1.00.  Complete  works  of  the  poets 
are  in  the  Globe  series  (Macmillan),  $1.75,  a  standard  edition.  Other 
well-known  editions  are  the  Astor  series  (Crowell),  $.60,  (Oxford 
Press),  $1.75,  and  the  Cambridge  series  (Houghton,  Mifflin),  $1.50  to 
$3.00. 

Selections  for  reading  may  be  found  in  books  previously  mentioned 

-  Bronson,  Manly,  Newcomer,  and  others.     Inexpensive  editions 

of  English  classics  are  published  by  Macmillan  and  other  firms. 

Besides  general  works  to  which  allusion  has  been  made  in  earlier 

chapters,  the  following  volumes  ought  to  prove  helpful : 

a.   For  Classes 

E.  Crowe,  With  Thackeray  in  America,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $2.00. 
T.  H.  Dickinson  and  F.  W.  Roe,  Nineteenth  Century  Prose,  N.  Y. 
(American  Book  Co.),  $1.00. 


408  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

J.  F.  Genung,  Tennyson's  In  Memoriam,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $1.25. 

A.  J.  George,  From  Chaucer  to  Arnold,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.00. 

B.  A.  Heydrick,  How  to  Study  Literature,  N.  Y.  (Hinds  and  Noble), 
$.75. 

W.  Minto,  Manual  of  English  Prose  Literature,  Bost.   (Ginn), 
$1.50;  deals  mainly  with  De  Quincey,  Macaulay,  and  Carlyle. 
W.  L.  Phelps,  Essays  of  Stevenson,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $.75 
Mrs.  Wm.  Sharp,  Women  Poets  of  the  Victorian  Era,  N.  Y.  (Sim- 
mons), $.40. 

C.  Waldstein,  Art  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
$.60. 

b.    For  Teachers  and  Others 

W.  D.  Adams,  Dictionary  of  the  Drama,  A.  to  G.,  Vol.  I,  Phila. 
(Lippincott),  $3.00. 

G.  Balfour,  Life  of  R.  L.  Stevenson  (Abridged),  N.  Y.  (Scribner's), 
$1.00. 

A.  Beatty,  Swinburne's  Dramas,  N.  Y.  (Crowell),  Astor  series,  $.60. 

S.  A.  Brooke,  Tennyson,  his  Art  and  Relation  to  Modern  Life,  N.  Y. 
(Putnam),  $2.00. 

W.  C.  Brownell,  Victorian  Prose  Masters,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $1.50. 

G.  W.  Cooke,  Guide-Book  to  Poetical  and  Dramatic  Works  of  R. 
Br 'owning,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $2.00. 

E.  Grainger,  Index  to  Poetry  and  Recitations  (Title  and  First  Line 
Indexes),  Chic.  (McClurg),  $5.00. 

W.  H.  Hunt,  Pre-Raphaelitism,  2  vols.,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $  10.00. 

T.  H.  Huxley,  Lay  Sermons,  N.  Y.  (Appleton),  $1.75. 

M.  Luce,  Handbook  to  the  Works  of  Tennyson,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
$1.75. 

H.  Matson,  References  for  Literary  Workers,  Chic.  (McClurg), 
$2.00. 

E.  Meynell,  Life  of  Francis  Thompson,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $4.00. 

Paul  E.  More,  The  Drift  of  Romanticism,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $1.25. 

I.  G.  Mudge,  A  Thackeray  Dictionary  (characters,  localities,  etc., 
of  novels),  N.  Y.  (Button),  $3.00. 

C.  H.  Nordby,  Influence  of  Old  Norse  Literature  upon  English 
Literature,  N.  Y.  (Lemcke),  $1.00. 

Mrs.  S.  Orr,  Handbook  to  Works  of  R.  Browning,  N.  Y.  (Mac- 
millan), $1.75. 

W.  L.  Phelps,  Pure  Gold  of  Nineteenth  Century  Literature,  N.  Y. 
(Crowell),  $.50. 


THE   VICTORIAN  PERIOD  409 

A.  J.  Philip,  A  Dickens  Dictionary  (characters  and  scenes  of  novels 
and  miscellaneous  works),  N.  Y.  (Button),  $3.00. 

A.  Compton  Rickett,  William  Morris,  Poet,  Craftsman,  Social 
Reformer,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $2.50. 

E.  Rhys,  Lyric  Poetry,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $1.50.     From  early  times 
to  Swinburne. 

G.  Saintsbury,  History  of  Nineteenth  Century  Literature,  N.  Y. 
(Macmillan),$1.50. 

F.  O.  Saxelby,  A   Hardy  Dictionary    (characters   and  scenes  of 
novels  and^oems),  N.  Y.  (Button),  $3.00. 

Wm.  Sharp,  Literary  Geography,  N.  Y.  (Buffield),  $1.50. 

E.  C.  Stedman,  Victorian  Anthology,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $1.75. 

R.  L.  Stevenson,  Poems  and  Ballads,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $2.00. 

G.  M.  Trevelyan,  The  Poetry  and  Philosophy  of  Meredith,  N.  Y. 
(Scribner's),  $1.00. 

J.  Tyndall,  Fragments  of  Science,  2  vols.,  N.  Y.  (Appleton),  $2.00. 
H.  Van  Byke,  The  Poetry  of  Tennyson,  N.  Y.  (Scribner's),  $2.00. 
H.  Walker,  The  Age  of  Tennyson,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $1.00. 
H.  Walker,  Literature  of  the  Victorian  Era,  N.Y.  (Putnam's),  $3.50. 


CHAPTER    XV 

RECENT  LITERATURE 

1900- 

Difficulty  of  Understanding  Our  Own  Time.  —  It  is  not 
easy  to  understand  or  to  portray  the  age  in  which  we  live. 
The  man  who  gazes  upon  a  forest  from  a  distance  gains 
a  better  idea  of  its  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  landscape  than 
the  man  who  is  walking  among  the  trees.  Lord  Bacon,  for 
instance,  speaking  of  the  proud  Shakespearean  period, 
asserts  that  "  this  age  of  the  world  is  somewhat  upon  the 
descent  of  the  wheel/'  Matthew  Arnold,  speaking  of  the 
great  Victorian  period,  tells  us  that  England  has  no  ideas. 
Opinions  such  as  these  should  warn  us  not  to  be  too  sure  that 
we  can  judge  with  fairness  the  literature  of  this  twentieth 
century.  There  never  was  a  period  when  the  public  did  not 
believe  that  its  greatest  writers  were  all  numbered  with  the 
illustrious  dead. 

Characteristics  of  Recent  Literature.  —  Recent  literature 
is  the  direct  outcome  of  recent  thought.  British  public 
opinion  has  taken  two  forms.  On  the  one  hand  are  those 
who  seek  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the  people  by  binding 
the  different  colonies  into  closer  unity  with  the  mother 
country.  These  are  the  imperialists,  the  people  who  look 
outward  for  new  life  and  new  energy.  On  the  other  hand 
are  those  who  have  been  impressed  by  the  poverty  and  dis- 
tress of  many  of  their  fellow-men.  These  are  the  social 
reformers,  the  people  who  seek  to  promote  greater  happiness 
within  the  British  Isles  by  curbing  the  power  of  those  that 
seem  to  oppress  the  weak. 

410 


EEC  EN  T  LITERATURE  411 

These  two  phases  of  public  opinion  are  reflected  in  recent 
literature.  The  tendency  of  the  first  is  toward  romance  or 
idealism  like  that  of  Mr.  Alfred  Noyes ;  the  tendency  of  the 
second  is  toward  realism  like  that  of  Mr.  John  Masefield. 
Each  of  these  social  movements  is  doing  good  in  its  own  way ; 
each  is  working  for  the  betterment  of  mankind.  Whatever 
be  their  general  attitude  toward  the  society  in  which  they 
live,  all  literary  men  and  women  seem  to  be  co-workers  in  a 
process  which  we  have  reason  to  believe  is  divine.  The 
choicest  literature  lives  because  it  makes  a  spiritual  appeal ; 
it  will  continue  to  live  so  long  as  it  reaches  the  heart  and 
the  conscience  of  humanity. 

1.   DRAMATISTS 

In  the  course  of  the  last  two  centuries  English  drama  lost 
its  supremacy,  partly  as  a  result  of  the  rise  of  prose  fiction. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  a  number  of  writers 
began  to  recognize  the  peculiar  charm  and  power  of  a  well- 
constructed  play.  Good  plays  could  almost  always  be  seen 
on  the  Parisian  stage,  but  it  was  Norway  that  gave  birth  to 
Henrik  Ibsen  (1828-1906),  a  playwright  whose  stimulus  was 
felt  in  the  dramatic  literature  of  the  civilized  world.  Artists 
and  stage  managers  of  every  nationality  have  no  scruples  in 
borrowing  from  other  lands.  More  and  more  the  drama  of 
to-day  aims  at  a  swift  terse  representation  of  life  and  its 
problems. 

Henry  Arthur  Jones  (1851-  )  is  one  of  the  best-known 
English  playwrights  and  critics.  More  than  once  has  he 
reminded  us  that  many  people  are  prejudiced  against  the 
theatre.  This  prejudice  he  traces  back  to  the  time  of  the 
Restoration  drama,  when  not  a  few  people  held  aloof  from 
the  theatre  and  denounced  the  playwright's  profession. 
Drama  is  intended,  he  asserts,  to  be  "  a  lovable  guide  in  the 


412  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

great  business  and  conduct  of  life/7  The  plays  of  Mr.  Jones, 
whether  serious  or  comic,  set  forth  the  manners  of  to-day 
with  great  skill.  This  author's  knowledge  of  stagecraft  is 
admirably  exhibited  in  such  plays  as  The  Dancing  Girl 
(1891),  Mrs.  Dane's  Defence  (1900),  and  The  Ogre  (1911). 

Sir  Arthur  Wing  Pinero  (1855-  )  first  sawr  the  light  in 
London.  His  experience  as  an  actor  has  been  invaluable 
to  him  as  a  playwright.  He  is  a  master  of  the  details  that  go 
to  make  a  play  successful  on  the  stage,  and  he  knows  how  to 
introduce  incidents  in  such  a  way  as  to  reveal  character.  He 
is  the  author  of  a  great  many  plays  of  different  kinds,  from 
The  Magistrate  (1885),  a  farce  in  three  acts,  to  The  Second 
Mrs.  Tanqueray  (1893),  one  of  his  serious  plays  dealing  with 
individual  or  social  problems. 

Sir  Arthur  is  evidently  a  man  who  has  made  a  study  of 
women.  As  a  rule  he  is  ready  to  make  excuses  for  weak 
women  such  as  Theophile  Fraser  in  The  Benefit  of  the  Doubt 
(1895)  and  the  heroine  in  Iris  (1901).  They  are  women  that 
revolt  against  the  laws  of  society  and  meet  with  tragic  defeat. 

The  best  constructed  of  this  author's  plays  are  The  Thun- 
derbolt (1908)  and  Mid-Channel  (1909).  The  latter  of  these 
is  probably  his  masterpiece.  The  action,  carried  out  by  the 
aid  of  only  a  few  characters,  is  simple  and  natural.  These 
plays  are  the  work  of  a  man  who  is  aware  of  what  the  average 
playgoer  desires  in  the  way  of  theatrical  entertainment. 

George  Bernard  Shaw  (1856-  )  was  born  at  Dublin, 
yet  he  is  not  classed  with  the  Irish  school  of  playwrights 
because,  with  the  exception  of  John  Bull's  Other  Island  (1904), 
his  plays  are  in  no  way  concerned  with  the  land  of  his  birth. 
Well  read  in  modern  German  literature  and  with  a  talent  for 
music,  he  began  to  make  a  name  for  himself  in  London  as 
a  journalist,  a  dramatic  critic,  and  a  social  reformer  with 
Puritan  instincts.  He  forces  people  to  gasp  with  wonder 
or  to  laugh  with  a  pretence  of  indifference.  He  professes, 


RECENT  LITERATURE 


413 


like  Dean  Swift,  to  mock  at  sentiment,  and  yet  he  is  as 
sentimental  as  his  neighbors. 

Between  1879  and  1883  Mr.  Shaw  wrote  a  number  of 
novels,  of  which  Cashel  Byron's  Pilgrimage  is  the  most 
familiar.  It  is  as  a  playwright,  however,  that  he  has  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  Europe 
and  America.  In  stagecraft  he  is 
less  careful  than  either  Jones  or 
Pinero,  but  he  is  more  brilliant, 
more  daring.  His  characters,  like 
their  creator,  are  argumentative 
and  intellectual.  It  is  their  saucy 
wit  that  saves  the  arguments 
from  being  tiresome,  and  under- 
neath the  wit  lies  a  serious  pur- 
pose. Drama  implies  action,  a 
lack  of  which  is  at  times  notice- 
able in  Mr.  Shaw's  works. 

Among  the  best  of  the  come- 
dies are  Amis  and  the  Man  (1894), 
Candida  (1895),  and  You  Never 
Can  Tell  (1900).  To  many  peo- 
ple the  most  audacious  of  Mr. 
Shaw's  works  is  Man  and  Superman  (1905),  whose  hero  is 
John  Tanner,  another  name  for  the  playwright  himsejf. 
The  title  of  this  play  suggests  that  instead  of  man  must 
come  the  superman,  that  is,  a  man  with  stronger  body  and 
brains  than  the  average  man  of  to-day.  The  leading  motive 
of  the  comedy  is  that  woman,  and  not  man,  begins  the  love- 
making.  The  Shewing-up  of  Blanco  Posnet  (1909)  has  a  pref- 
ace that  is  much  longer  than  the  play  itself,  and  some  of 
the  playwright's  prefaces  are  excellent.  The  scene  of  this 
short  play  is  "  a  territory  of  the  United  States  of  America." 

Mr,  Shaw's  success  has  been  due  to  the  forceful  lively  way 


Courtesy  o/"  Review  of  Reviews" 

FIG.   149.  —  George  Bernard 
Shaw. 


414 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


in  which  he  presents  his  ideas  rather  than  to  his  dramatic 
power.  Whether  we  agree  or  disagree  with  some  of  his 
opinions,  there  is  no  question  about  his  mental  power.  He 
can  think  and  he  can  write.  He  reaches  the  intellect  oftener 
than  he  reaches  the  heart.  We  admire  some  of  his  characters, 
but  we  scarcely  love  them.  Mr.  Shaw  is  always  entertaining, 
yet  at  times  he  fails  to  convince  us  that  his  characters 
have  real  flesh  and  blood. 

Sir  James  Matthew  Barrie  (1860-  ).  — Wit  is  like 
the  sharp  rattle  of  a  hailstorm ;  humor  is  like  the  soft  twining 
of  a  Scots  mist.  Wit  is  the  lightning  ; 
humor  is  the  sunshine.  These  anal- 
ogies illustrate  one  of  the  distinctions 
between  Mr.  Shaw  and  Sir  James 
Matthew  Barrie.  No  one  who  takes 
up  a  book  by  Barrie  can  be  in  the 
slightest  doubt  that  his  gift  is  that  of 
humor  —  the  rarer,  the  gentler,  the 
kindlier  of  the  two  phases  of  comedy. 
It  was  in  the  little  Forfarshire 
weaving  town  of  Kirriemuir,  known 
and  loved  by  his  readers  as  Thrums, 
that  Barrie  was  born.  At  the  age  of 
ten  he  was  sent  to  the  Dundee 
Academy,  and  later  he  graduated  at  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh. Modest  in  manner,  the  sinewy  dark-complexioned 
youth  set  out  for  England  to  make  his  fortune.  When  he 
joined  the  staff  of  the  Nottingham  Journal,  he  found  that 
journalism  helped  him  to  write  better  and  to  extend  his 
knowledge  of  mankind,  as  it  had  helped  Dickens  and  many 
another. 

Barrie  first  acquired  fame  as  a  novelist.  The  Little 
Minister  (1891),  whose  scene  is  laid  in  his  native  town,  ex- 
hibits that  quality  of  intimateness  which  marks  Margaret 


FIG.  150.  —  Sir  James 
Matthew  Barrie. 


RECENT  LITERATURE  415 

Ogihy  (1896)  and  all  of  his  works.  He  takes  every  reader 
into  his  confidence,  expressing  his  feelings  with  freedom  and 
directness.  Among  his  other  novels  one  of  the  most  admi- 
rable is  Sentimental  Tommy  (1896) .  It  is  a  picture  of  boyhood 
as  seen  through  the  eyes  of  a  man  whose  heart  is  as  delight- 
fully boyish  as  it  was  in  the  days  that  are  gone  forever. 

It  is  as  a  playwright,  however,  that  Barrie  has  achieved  the 
greatest  literary  success.  He  is  alive  to  the  practical  require- 
ments of  the  modern  theatre.  In  The  Wedding  Guest  (1900), 
for  instance,  we  are  not  annoyed  by  tiresome  or  disagreeable 
words  and  actions.  Something  is  left  to  the  imagination. 
Perhaps  the  best  of  the  dramas  is  The  Admirable  Crichton 
(1902),  fanciful  but  never  false  to  human  nature. 

Some  of  the  choicest  plays  are  Peter  Pan  (1904),  revealing 
the  fairyland  of  childhood  in  a  most  convincing  manner; 
What  Every  Woman  Knows  (1908),  set  forth  with  the  insight 
and  wisdom  of  genius ;  Rosalind  (1912),  the  quaint  story  of 
an  actress ;  and  The  Adored  One,  or,  as  it  is  called  in  America, 
The  Legend  of  Leonora  (1913),  the  most  whimsical  of  all  the 
comedies.  The  last  of  these  is,  as  Barrie  explains,  a  play 
written  only  for  people  who  have  had  a  mother.  It  is  at 
once  a  charming  tribute  to  womanhood  and  a  delicate  satire 
on  the  English  law  courts. 

Barrie  knows  how  to  write  literature,  how  to  express  his 
ideas  simply  and  impressively.  He  has  the  social  imagina- 
tion whereby  he  easily  puts  himself  in  the  position  of  others. 
He  surprises  and  pleases  by  the  vigor  of  his  sympathy,  his 
naturalness,  his  fanciful  humor.  The  best  of  his  novels  and 
dramas  constitute  a  distinct  contribution  to  the  treasures  of 
English  literature,  a  contribution  which  will  probably  be 
remembered  after  the  present  generation  has  given  place  to 
others. 

John  Galsworthy  (1867-  ),  a  native  of  Coombe,  Surrey, 
is  both  a  novelist  and  a  dramatist.  The  first  of  his  novels 


416 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


that  attracted  general  attention  was  The  Island  Pharisees 
(1904),  the  story  of  a  man  who  tried  to  find  agreeable  asso- 
ciates. Everywhere  among  the  people  of  Britain  he  found 
Pharisees,  that  is,  persons  who  thanked  God  that  they  were 
better  than  their  neighbors.  The 
plot  is  rather  weak,  but  Mr.  Gals- 
worthy has  steadily  improved  in 
everything  that  goes  to  make  a  suc- 
cessful story. 

Among  his  later  novels  are  The 
Man  of  Property  (1906),  written  to 
reveal  the  self-esteem  of  a  man  who 
has  plenty  of  money,  and  Fraternity 
(1909),  the  most  serious  of  all  these 
novels.  The  latter  is  a  story  in 
which  is  shown  with  great  skill  the 
difficulty  of  attaining  a  real  brother- 
hood among  mankind.  As  Mr.  Gals- 
worthy sees  it,  it  is  only  by  changing  the  social  structure 
that  either  the  rich  or  the  poor  can  achieve  their  ideals. 
The  Patrician  (1911)  is  less  interesting  than  The  Dark 
Flower  (1913),  whose  hero  is  Mark  Lennon.  For  him  love 
is  the  dark  flower  that  never  brings  permanent  happiness. 
Unlike  most  men,  the  hero  seems  to  have  profited  little  by 
the  teaching  of  experience. 

As  a  playwright  Mr.  Galsworthy  scarcely  achieved  a 
theatrical  success  with  The  Silver  Box  (1906),  written  to  show 
that  the  poor  need  not  expect  the  same  justice  in  a  law  court 
as  people  that  are  wealthy.  Most  of  the  plays,  like  most  of 
the  novels,  deal  with  problems  of  modern  society.  Their 
purpose  is  to  depict  those  that  are  oppressed.  In  Joy  (1907) 
Mr.  Galsworthy  does  not  try  to  teach,  but  to  entertain,  and  he 
succeeds  admirably.  In  Strife  (1909)  we' are  shown  a  con- 
flict between  capital  and  labor, 


FIG.  151.  — John  Gals- 
worthy. 


RECENT  LITERATURE 


417 


The  Pigeon  (1912),  a  fantastic  comedy,  seems  to  be  a  good- 
natured  satire  on  its  author.  The  pigeon  is  Christopher 
Wellwyn,  who  allows  himself  to  be  "  plucked  "  or  used  by 
every  person  who  is  in  trouble.  The  plot  is  rather  improb- 
able, yet  the  characters  are  so  human  as  to  enlist  general 
sympathy. 

Mr.  Galsworthy  is  one  of  the  most  popular  novelists  and 
dramatists  of  this  generation.  He  is  a  shrewd  impartial  ob- 
server of  life  as  it  is,  and  he  can  interpret  what  falls  under  his 
notice.  He  is  never  content  with  the  mere  external  fact; 
he  lays  bare  its  inner  meaning. 
This  he  does  with  the  patience 
and  certainty  of  one  who  has 
mastered  the  technical  side  of 
literary  art.  His  clear  vision  and 
his  sense  of  humor  have  taught 
him  to  note  his  own  imperfec- 
tions and  to  rise  toward  high 
artistic  achievement. 

Stephen  Phillips  (1869-  ) 
studied  for  the  civil  service,  for  a 
time  was  on  the  stage,  and,  like 
Shakespeare,  he  played  the  ghost 
in  Hamlet.  During  a  spell  of 
illness  when  he  was  about  fifteen, 
his  mother  read  to  him  Coleridge's 
Christabel,  a  reading  from  which  he  dates  the  charm  of  the 
influence  of  poetry. 

Eremus  (1894)  is  not  the  earliest  of  the  poems  of  Mr. 
Phillips,  but  its  blank  verse  is  interesting  as  showing  the  prog- 
ress that  he  has  made  in  later  works.  The  first  poem  that 
caught  the  ear  of  the  populace  was  Christ  in  Hades  (1896),  a 
bold  treatment  of  an  unusual  subject.  It  contains  many 
noble  passages,  marred  a  little  at  times  by  irregular  metre. 

2E 


FIG.   152.  —  Stephen  Phillips. 


418  ENGLISH  LITEEATURE 

Down  in  Hades  Jesus  meets  Virgil,  an  episode  which  is  thus 
described  : 

But  in  his  path  a  lonely  spirit  stood  ! 

A  Roman,  he  who  from  a  greater  Greek 

Borrowed  as  beautifully  as  the  moon 

The  fire  of  the  sun :  fresh  come  he  was,  and  still 

Deaf  with  the  sound  of  Rome :  forward  he  came 

Softly ;  a  human  tear  had  not  yet  dried. 

"  Whither/'  he  said,  "  0  whither  dost  thou  lead 

In  such  a  calm  all  these  embattled  dead  ?  "  l 

In  1897  appeared  a  collection  of  poems,  including  The 
Woman  with  the  Dead  Soul  and  Marpessa.  The  latter,  a 
narrative  poem  of  great  beauty  and  dignity,  tells  how  Mar- 
pessa is  permitted  by  Zeus  to  make  a  choice  between  the  god 
Apollo  and  a  young  man  named  Idas.  She  chose  Idas,  who 
addressed  her  in  these  words : 

Not  for  this  alone  do  I  love  thee,  but 
Because  infinity  upon  thee  broods  ; 
And  thou  art  full  of  whispers  and  of  shadows. 
Thou  meanest  what  the  sea  has  striven  to  say 
So  long,  and  yearned  up  the  cliffs  to  tell ; 
Thou  art  what  all  the  winds  have  uttered  not, 
What  the  still  night  suggesteth  to  the  heart. 
Thy  voice  is  like  to  music  heard  ere  birth, 
Some  spirit  lute  touched  on  a  spirit  sea.2 

It  is  in  poetic  drama  that  Mr.  Phillips  has  attained  high 
rank  among  English  writers.  His  first  success  was  Paolo 
and  Francesca  (1899),  a  tragedy  in  blank  verse.  Based  upon 
one  of  the  most  touching  scenes  in  Dante's  Divine  Comedy, 
it  is  a  story  of  love  in  medieval  Italy.  The  fall  of  the  lovers 
is  enlarged  from  Dante's  sketch  with  a  delicacy  and  restraint 

1  Printed  from  Poems  (1898)  by  permission  of  the  John  Lane 
Company. 

2  By  permission  of  the  John  Lane  Company. 


RECENT  LITERATURE  419 

which  at  once  attracted  favorable  notice.  There  are  many 
fine  scenes  such  as  the  parting  between  Paolo  and  Francesca 
before  his  departure  from  Rimini.  The  best-drawn  character 
is  Lucrezia,  whose  speeches  possess  dramatic  as  well  as  poetic 
strength. 

The  poetic  tragedy  entitled  Herod  (1900)  has  a  historical 
background.  Herod  is  deeply  in  love  with  his  wife  Mariamne, 
whose  brother  Aristobulus  he  elevates  to  the  place  of  High 
Priest.  Suspicious  that  his  brother-in-law  may  desire  the 
throne,  Herod  orders  the  prince  to  be  slain.  When  the  queen 
learns  that  her  brother  is  dead,  her  love  turns  to  hatred.  It  is 
in  the  second  act  that  she  says  to  Herod  - 

Back,  and  in  the  jungle  burn 
Whence  you  did  leap  out  at  my  brother's  throat. 
Can  you  deny  your  part  in  this  ?     0  subtle  ! 
Half  suitor  and  half  strangler,  with  one  arm 
About  the  sister's  neck,  the  other  hand 
About  the  brother's  throat ! 1 

Among  the  later  works  of  Mr.  Phillips  the  most  notable 
are  Ulysses  (1902),  based  upon  the  old  Homeric  romance; 
The  Sin  of  David  (1904),  the  love  story  of  Sir  Hubert  Lisle 
in  the  year  1643;  Nero  (1906),  with  the  beautiful  speeches 
of  Agrippina;  Pieiro  of  Siena  (1910);  The  King  (1912). 

The  poet  who  now  writes  for  the  stage  has  to  compete  with 
costume,  scenery,  and  music,  which  tend  to  divert  an  audi- 
ence from  the  charm  of  noble  diction.  Under  these  condi- 
tions it  is  extremely  difficult  to  write  theatre-verse,  verse 
direct  enough  for  strictly  dramatic  purposes.  Mr.  Phillips 
has  been  more  successful  than  either  Tennyson  or  Browning 
in  writing  poetic  dramas  or  dramatic  poems.  He  has  achieved 
distinction  in  narrative  and  lyric  verse,  and  he  has  also 
won  the  approval  of  intelligent  playgoers.  When  he  will 

1  By  permission  of  the  John  Lane  Company. 


420  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

pause  long  enough  to  reveal  the  motive  behind  the  deeds  of 
his  characters,  when  he  attains  uniform  simplicity  of  style, 
Mr.  Phillips  may  restore  English  poetic  drama  to  the  power 
which  it  exerted  centuries  ago. 

Harley  Granville  Barker  (1877-  ),  a  native  of  Kensing- 
ton, London,  was  in  his  fourteenth  year  when  he  first  appeared 
on  the  stage.  For  several  years  he  was  associated  with  the 
Stage  Society  of  London,  and  especially  with  the  plays  of 
Mr.  Shaw.  In  1904  he  joined  Mr.  J.  E.  Vedrenne  in  the 
management  of  the  Court  Theatre,  and  three  years  later  he 
declined  the  post  of  director  of  the  New  Theatre  in  New  York. 

The  earliest  play  of  this  actor,  manager,  and  playwright 
was  The  Marrying  of  Ann  Leete  (1902),  the  story  of  a  young 
lady  who  became  the  bride  of  a  gardener.  Much  more 
successful  was  The  Voysey  Inheritance  (1905),  a  strong  play 
about  a  lawyer  who  died  in  honor,  leaving  his  son  the  task 
of  adjusting  the  father's  secret  dishonesty. 

The  ordinary  dramatic  artist  feels  that  it  is  necessary  in 
the  opening  scene  to  convey  to  the  audience  a  clew  to  the 
action  of  the  play.  Everything  in  a  regular  play  tends 
toward  the  working  out  of  the  author's  purpose,  yet  in  real 
life  this  is  never  the  case.  Mr.  Barker  tries  to  be  so  true 
to  real  life  that  during  the  earlier  scenes  of  Waste  (1907), 
the  audience  is  puzzled  to  catch  the  drift  of  the  tragedy. 
This  is  a  new  element  in  drama,  and  has  its  dangers,  since 
art  is  never  a  mere  photograph  of  life.  The  Madras  House 
(1910)  is  a  play  which,  influenced  by  Shaw  in  its  method, 
concerns  itself  mainly  with  the  destiny  of  woman;  while 
Rococo  (1911)  is  a  one-act  play,  another  of  Mr.  Barker's 
experiments  in  stagecraft. 

Beyond  a  doubt  he  makes  his  characters  use  the  language 
of  everyday  life,  but  much  that  is  said  is  trivial  or  irrele- 
vant, and  therefore  has  no  place  in  art  of  any  kind.  Mr. 
Barker  creates  lifelike  characters  because  he  is  a  man  of 


RECENT  LITERATURE  421 

originality,  a  man  who  finds  a  certain  pleasure  in  all  the 
people  of  his  plays.  He  has  not  always  been  successful  in 
catching  the  fancy  of  the  play  going  public,  yet  he  is  one  of 
the  most  promising  exponents  of  what  Mr.  Shaw  terms  the 
New  Drama. 

The  Irish  Dramatic  Movement 

Ancient  Irish  literature  includes  no  drama  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  term.  Ireland  gave  birth  to  playwrights  like 
Goldsmith  and  Sheridan,  but  there  was  no  native  drama  in 
existence  until  near  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
Irish  dramatic  movement  endeavors  to  represent  national  life 
in  a  manner  so  convincing  that  its  charm  will  leap  across  the 
footlights  to  the  hearts  of  the  audience.  Too  often  this 
native  drama  is  concerned  only  with  the  gloomy  side  of  lowly 
country  folk,  yet  in  time  it  will  doubtless  deal  with  people 
who  are  happy  and  normal  in  every  way. 

This  literary  movement  really  had  its  beginning  about  the 
year  1890.  In  1891  Mr.  Yeats  established  the  National 
Literary  Society  in  Dublin,  and  two  years  afterward  other 
organizations  were  founded.  In  1899  the  Irish  Literary 
Theatre  came  into  existence,  and  three  years  later  Mr.  W.  G. 
Fay  gathered  around  him  the  Irish  National  Company,  which 
later  became  the  Irish  National  Theatre  Society.  In  1904 
the  Abbey  Theatre  of  Dublin  opened  its  doors  for  the  repre- 
sentation of  native  drama  by  Irish  actors.  The  great  task 
of  this  drama  is  to  knit  every  part  of  the  country  in  oneness 
of  feeling  through  the  art  of  imaginative  literature.  If  it 
continues  to  keep  this  noble  purpose  in  view,  the  Irish  dra- 
matic movement  may  ultimately  seize  and  uplift  every  heart 
in  the  romantic  Emerald  Isle. 

Lady  Augusta  Gregory  (1852-  )  comes  from  Rox- 
borough  in  County  Galway.  In  her  Poets  and  Dreamers 


422  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

(1903)  she  tells  of  her  experiences  in  collecting  stories  from 
the  humble  people  of  Connemara  and  the  Aran  Isles  of  west- 
ern Ireland.  Her  literary  reputation  is  based  upon  her  work 
as  a  translator,  a  collector  of  folk-lore,  an  essayist,  and  a 
playwright.  She  was  one  of  those  who  took  part  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Irish  Literary  Theatre.  Some  of  her 
own  plays  have  appeared  in  Ireland,  England,  and  America. 

So  many  of  the  Irish  plays  were  serious  that  it  occurred  to 
Lady  Gregory  to  write  some  farces  in  order  to  cause  a  little 
innocent  laughter.  Among  these  is  Spreading  the  News  (1904), 
which,  like  The  Jackdaw  (1907),  is  a  genial  satire  on  gossip 
or  love  of  scandal.  Longer  than  either  of  these  is  The 
Image  (1909),  whose  fun  is  perhaps  less  enjoyable  than  that 
of  The  Bogie  Men  (1912). 

Among  Lady  Gregory's  historical  plays  are  Kincora  (1905), 
dealing  with  a  hero  of  the  eleventh  century ;  The  White 
Cockade  (1905),  whose  scene  is  laid  in  an  inn  of  the  later 
seventeenth  century;  and  Devorgilla  (1907),  which  presents 
life  in  Ireland  after  the  arrival  of  the  Normans. 

The  Gaol  Gate  (1906)  is  a  realistic  folk-tragedy  of  modern 
times,  showing  how  "  Denis  Cahel  died  for  his  neighbour/' 
MacDarragh's  Wife  (1912)  and  Grama  (1912)  are  serious  and 
memorable  stage-pictures. 

Lady  Gregory  may  not  be  an  illustrious  playwright,  yet 
she  deserves  praise  for  her  undoubted  talent  and  for  her  life- 
long devotion  to  the  spiritual  uplift  of  her  native  country. 
If  she  possesses  scant  knowledge  of  stagecraft,  at  least  she 
has  done  much  to  stimulate  others  to  serve  their  homeland 
through  the  medium  of  the  theatre.  In  scenes  of  humor  and 
pathos  she  is  often  admirable. 

William  Butler  Yeats  (1865-  ).  —  More  than  any 
writer  of  to-day  the  genius  of  Mr.  Yeats  resembles  that  of 
M.  Maeterlinck,  the  Flemish  or  Belgian  dramatist.  The 
genius  of  both  men  lies  not  merely  in  the  artistic  use  of  an- 


RECENT  LITERATURE 


423 


cient  legends  or  folk-lore,  but  in  a  sensitiveness  to  the  unseen 
forces  that  sway  mankind.  Both  men  seem  to  feel  that  the 
invisible  world  is  more  real  than  the  world  of  matter.  Both 
are  satisfied  that  man  is  at  times 
the  plaything  of  powers,  evil 
powers,  more  real  than  the 
witches  of  Macbeth.  The  Irish 
poet  is  the  more  melodious,  the 
Flemish  poet  the  more  dramatic. 
Difference  in  birthplace  and 
ancestry  is  nothing  as  compared 
with  kinship  of  spirit,  a  kinship 
which  is  in  no  sense  a  mere  imi- 
tation of  the  one  by  the  other. 
The  Irish  poet's  attitude  toward 
life  is  clearly  expressed  in  his 
Ideas  of  Good  and  Evil  (1905). 

In  his  twenty-third  year  Mr. 
Yeats  left  Dublin  for  London, 
where,  in  1889,  he  published  his 
first  volume  of  poems,  The  Wanderings  of  Oisin.  Readers 
are  led  back  to  the  ancient  hero-myths  of  Erin,  to  land- 
scapes seen  through  the  colored  haze  of  floating  mists.  A 
single  passage  from  this  romantic  poem  may  illustrate  the 
distinction  and  delicacy  of  its  style.  Oisin,  a  hero  of  ancient 
Ireland,  was  hunting  deer,  when  he  and  his  companions 
came  to  a  grassy  hill  - 

And  found  on  the  dove-gray  edge  of  the  sea 

A  pearl-pale,  high-born  lady,  who  rode 

On  a  horse  with  bridle  of  findrinny  (bronze)  ; 

And  like  a  sunset  were  her  lips, 

A  stormy  sunset  on  doomed  ships ; 

A  citron  colour  gloomed  in  her  hair, 

But  down  to  her  feet  white  vesture  flowed, 


FIG.  153.  —  William  Butler 
Yeats. 


424  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

And  with  the  glimmering  crimson  glowed 
Of  many  a  figured  embroidery  ; 
And  it  was  bound  with  a  pearl  pale  shell 
That  wavered  like  the  summer  streams, 
As  her  soft  bosom  rose  and  fell.1 

In  1893  Mr.  Yeats  issued  a  volume  of  prose  sketches  en- 
titled The  Celtic  Twilight.  Four  years  later  came  The 
Secret  Rose,  with  its  stories  of  Hanrahan  the  Red.  A  most 
notable  collection  of  lyrics  is  The  Wind  among  the  Reeds 
(1899).  There  is  high  pleasure  for  the  sympathetic  reader 
of  poems  such  as  When  You  Are  Old,  To  Ireland  in  the 
Coming  Time,  The  Lake  Isle  of  Innisfree,  Dream  of  a  Blessed 
Spirit.  Human  and  playful  is  the  picture  of  The  Fiddler  of 
Dooney,  who  feels  sure  that  St.  Peter  will  ultimately  call  him 
through  heaven's  gate  — 

And  when  the  folk  there  spy  me, 
They  will  all  come  up  to  me, 
With  "  Here  is  the  fiddler  of  Dooney  !  " 
And  dance  like  a  wave  on  the  sea. 

Besides  editing  the  works  of  the  English  poet  William 
Blake,  Mr.  Yeats  has  written  prose  tales,  lyrics,  and  dramas, 
tinged  with  the  supernatural.  The  Countess  Cathleen 
(1892,  revised  in  1911)  is  weird  and  impressive.  It  is  a 
drama  based  upon  Irish  tradition.  The  countess  is  the 
great  lady  of  a  famine-stricken  district  in  Ireland.  Demons 
disguised  as  merchants  come  to  buy  the  souls  of  the  poor, 
but  the  generous  countess  saves  them  until  her  own  resources 
are  exhausted.  Then  she  sells  her  soul  to  save  the  people, 
but  on  the  Day  of  Judgment  she  is  forgiven,  for  God  judges 
the  intention  rather  than  the  deed.  Old  Oona  says  to  her 
mistress  — 

1  This  and  other  citations  by  permission  of  The  Macmillan  Co. 


RECENT  LITERATURE  425 

Dear  heart,  make  a  soft  cradle  of  old  tales, 
And  songs  and  music :  wherefore  should  you  sadden 
For  wrongs  you  cannot  hinder  ?     The  great  God 
Smiling  condemns  the  lost :  be  mirthful :  He 
Bids  you  be  merry  and  old  age  be  wise. 

Another  of  the  plays  is  The  Land  of  Heart's  Desire  (1894,  re- 
vised in  1912).  It  is  a  single-act  ideal  treatment  of  the  super- 
natural. The  simple  country  folk  of  the  play  are  living 
figures.  Father  Hart,  the  old  priest,  gentle  and  wise  in  the 
wisdom  of  God,  is  living,  too.  The  hearts  of  these  people  beat 
warm  and  true.  The  time  is  May-day  Eve,  when  the  ghosts 
of  ancient  customs  walk  abroad.  Maire  Bruin  has  listened  to 
the  green-clad  children  of  Fairyland,  who  lure  mortals  to  the 
land  of  eternal  play.  Her  heart  is  divided  between  love  of 
her  husband  and  the  craving  for  the  sound  of  rippling  feet 
that  dance  in  the  sheen  of  moonlight.  The  fairy  in  the  guise 
of  a  child  entices  Maire's  spirit  to  leave  the  peace  of  home-quiet- 
ness. Her  body  lies  on  the  primrose  littered  cottage  floor,  and 
the  soul  of  Maire  has  passed  to  the  Land  of  Heart's  Desire. 

Another  fanciful  imaginative  drama  is  The  Shadowy 
Waters  (1900),  whose  hero  Forgael  fails  to  see  that  true  love 
ennobles  earthly  emotion  and  makes  it  holy.  The  King's 
Threshold  (1903),  a  blend  of  seriousness  and  comedy,  has 
much  more  sentiment  than  the  drama  just  mentioned. 
Among  the  better  known  plays  is  On  Baile's  Strand  (1904). 
It  may  be  called  a  mythic  tragedy  in  which  Cuchulain  slays 
his  son,  and  dies  in  the  madness  of  despair.  The  one-act 
romance  tragedy  Deirdre  (1906),  named  after  its  heroine, 
shows  us  the  beautiful  lady  who  with  her  young  lover  dies  in 
the  woodland  lodge  of  the  old  king's  palace.  The  Green 
Helmet  (1910)  is  one  of  the  more  recent  dramas. 

With  Mr.  Stephen  Phillips,  Mr.  Yeats  has  been  more  suc- 
cessful in  poetic  drama  than  any  of  the  poets  of  the  Victorian 
period,  and  this  is  true  even  if  we  admit  that  he  is  greater  as  a 


426  ENGLISH  LITERATUEE 

poet  than  as  a  dramatist.  Through  his  sympathy  and  his 
genius  he  has  exalted  the  very  heart  of  his  native  land.  He 
has  found  his  chief  inspiration  in  the  days  of  ancient  chivalry. 
He  knows  how  to  give  high  artistic  form  to  his  imagination 
and  feeling.  With  patient  effort  he  has  gained  a  sure  mastery 
of  rhythms  untried  by  any  of  his  associates,  and  in  all  his 
work  his  own  individuality  is  dominant.  As  an  exponent  of 
Irish  idealism  Mr.  Yeats  deserves  the  thanks  of  all  lovers  of 
literature  for  having  given  noble  utterance  to  that  spirituality 
which  has  for  ages  been  the  chief  glory  of  a  proud  and  valor- 
ous people. 

John  Millington  Synge  (1871-1909)  was  born  at  Newtown 
Little,  near  Rathfarnham,  about  four  miles  south  of  Dublin. 
After  attending  private  schools  in  Dublin  and  in  Bray,  he  was 
taught  by  a  private  tutor  until  he  entered  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  in  1888.  He  travelled  in  Europe,  and  for  several 
years  spent  part  of  each  year  in  France  and  part  in  Ireland. 
In  1898  he  met  Mr.  Yeats,  who  induced  Synge  to  devote 
himself  to  the  expression  of  life  in  western  Ireland.  Im- 
pressions of  his  visits  are  recorded  in  The  Aran  Islands 
(1907),  a  book  of  sketches  in  prose. 

Some  of  the  devices  of  stagecraft  Synge  had  learned  abroad, 
and  the  result  is  that  his  plays  are  well  constructed,  even  if 
some  of  his  themes  are  by  no  means  typical  of  Irish  manners. 
The  earliest  play  was  In  the  Shadow  of  the  Glen  (1903),  a  one-act 
tragi-comedy  which  was  first  produced  by  the  Irish  National 
Theatre  Society  in  Dublin.  It  is  a  sketch  of  a  loveless 
marriage  between  Nora  and  Dan  Burke,  a  gruff  old  farmer. 

Synge Js  tragic  masterpiece  is  Riders  to  the  Sea  (1904), 
whose  leading  figure  is  old  Maurya.  Already  her  husband 
and  five  of  her  sons  have  been  lost  at  sea.  Bartley,  the  sixth 
and  last  of  them,  rides  away  on  a  gray  horse.  The  mother 
is  still  lamenting  the  death  of  Michael,  when  the  villagers 
carry  to  her  something  in  a  wet  sail-cloth.  She  knows  she 


,  RECENT  LITERATURE  427 

has  lost  her  last  son.  "  They're  all  gone  now,  and  there 
isn't  anything  more  the  sea  can  do  to  me." 

The  story  of  two  blind  old  beggars,  Martin  and  Mary 
Doul,  is  told  in  The  Well  of  the  Saints  (1905).  Each  fancies 
that  the  other  is  beautiful.  A  saintly  friar  restores  their 
sight  by  means  of  water  from  a  holy  well.  They  find  that 
real  life  is  poorer  than  the  dream  life  of  their  blindness. 
Again  they  lose  their  eyesight  and  are  content. 

On  its  first  appearance  The  Playboy  of  the  Western  World 
(1907)  caused  a  riot  in  Dublin.  The  plot  centres  round 
Christy  Mahon,  who  falls  in  love  with  Pegeen,  the  innkeeper's 
daughter.  He  is  called  the  playboy  because  of  his  prowess  in 
athletics.  His  father,  whom  he  thought  he  had  killed,  ap- 
pears, and  again  the  playboy  attacks  him.  The  hero  of  this 
sensational  play  ought  not  to  be  taken  too  seriously. 

Deirdre  of  the  Sorrows  (1910)  did  not  appear  on  the  stage 
till  after  its  author's  death.  The  legend  of  Deirdre,  the  Irish 
Helen  whose  lover  is  slain  by  the  old  king  Conchubar,  is  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world's  literature.  Synge  depicts 
Deirdre,  not  as  a  queen,  but  as  an  artless  child  of  nature. 
The  diction  is  based  upon  that  of  Irish  country  folk  to-day. 

As  a  playwright  Synge  constructed  most  of  his  work  with 
care  and  skill.  His  was  an  ill-balanced  genius,  endowed  with 
true  imaginative  quality.  The  sarcastic  humor  and  the 
melancholy  which  appear  so  often  in  his  plays  are  the  out- 
come of  his  peculiar  nature.  Whether  he  has  always 
succeeded  in  presenting  true  pictures  of  Irish  life  is  extremely 
doubtful,  yet  every  one  will  admit  that  Synge  was  a  master 
of  vigorous  and  often  beautiful  diction  and  description. 

2.   POETS 

Fiona  Macleod  (1856-1905),  a  woman's  name,  was  for  a 
time  the  pen-name  of  William  Sharp,  who  was  born  at  Paisley 


428 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


in  the  Scottish  Lowlands.  Under  his  real  name  he  was  a 
London  literary  critic.  It  seems  that  in  1886  during  a  severe 
illness  he  saw  visions  and  dreamed  dreams.  Some  of  these 
visions  and  dreams  he  put  into  prose  and  verse,  publishing 
them  as  Fiona  Macleod. 

The  Mountain  Lovers  (1895)  is  one  of  several  romantic 
novels.  It  tells  of  people  who  lived  close  to  nature,  sensitive 
to  life's  mysteries.  The  Sin  Eater  (1895)  and  The  Divine 
Adventure  (1900)  are  among  his  best  prose  works. 

The  House  of  Usna  (1900),  written  in  beautiful  imagina- 
tive prose,  was  performed  by  the  Stage  Society  of  London. 
The  Immortal  Hour  (1900),  in  blank  verse,  is  less  dramatic 
than  its  predecessor. 

One  of  Sharp's  volumes  of  poems,  The  Hour  of  Beauty 
(1907),  illustrates  his  ornate  style. 

Like  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Sharp  was  sympathetic  toward  the 
folk-lore  and  legends  of  his  country.  He  is  at  his  best  when 

he  seeks  to  interpret  what  he 
has  read  or  heard  about  the 
remote  past.  Not  one  of  his  pro- 
ductions is  without  some  phrase 
or  conception  of  arresting  felicity. 
His  works,  influenced  by  Rossetti, 
are  exalted  by  a  tender  and  inti- 
mate feeling  for  nature.  She  seems 
to  charm  Sharp  with  her  beauty 
and  to  awe  him  with  her  might  and 
her  mystery.  Whether  his  work 
be  in  prose  or  in  poetry,  its  subtle 
word-magic  gives  ready  utterance 
to  his  fleeting  emotions.  Few 
modern  writers  have  portrayed  the  vague  longings  of  the 
human  soul  with  such  suggestiveness. 

William  Watson  (1858-        )  spent  his  childhood  years  at 


FIG.  154.  — William  Watson. 


RECENT  LITERATURE  429 

Burley -in- Wharf  edale,  Yorkshire.  For  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
two  The  Prince's  Quest  (1880)  was  a  remarkable  production. 
It  is  a  metrical  romance  of  about  two  thousand  lines,  unequal 
in  execution.  Throughout  there  is  a  subtle  sense  of  rhythm 
and  melody,  a  power  of  coining  the  phrase  that  clings  to  one's 
memory. 

So  hour  by  hour  (thus  ran  the  Prince's  dream) 
Glided  the  boat  along  the  broadening  stream, 

Over  the  errant  water  wandering  free, 
As  some  lone  sea-bird  over  a  lone  sea.1 

The  Epigrams  (1884)  and  Poems  (1892)  are  more  polished, 
and  the  thought  is  more  condensed  than  in  Mr.  Watson's 
earlier  efforts.  The  terse  witchery  of  his  epigrams  is  well 
shown,  for  instance,  when  he  says  - 

Forget  not,  brother  singer  !  that  though  Prose 

Can  never  be  too  truthful  or  too  wise, 
Song  is  not  Truth,  not  Wisdom,  but  the  rose 

Upon  Truth's  lips,  the  light  in  Wisdom's  eyes.2 

Among  later  volumes  of  poetry  are  The  Purple  East  (1896) 
and  Sable  and  Purple  (1910). 

Like  Mr.  Yeats  and  Mr.  Phillips,  Mr.  Watson  has  contrib- 
uted to  the  progress  of  poetic  drama.  The  choicest  of  his 
more  recent  works  is  The  Heralds  of  the  Dawn  (1912),  a  play 
in  eight  scenes,  written  with  the  author's  accustomed  mas- 
tery of  blank  verse.  There  are  scenes  of  war,  of  the  populace 
in  the  city  streets,  of  the  palace,  after  the  manner  of  tradi- 
tional drama.  The  play  endeavors  to  express  a  people's 
longing  for  a  better  social  system,  a  system  which  comes 
through  the  accession  to  the  throne  of  a  royal  idealist. 

1  By  permission  of  the  John  Lane  Company. 

2  From  Collected  Poems  (1899)  by  permission  of  the  John  Lane 
Company. 


430  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Among  the  finer  features  of  this  little  play  are  the  rare 
diction,  the  terse  dialogue,  and  the  varied  form  of  expression 
suited  to  each  of  the  characters. 

The  outstanding  merits  of  Mr.  Watson's  poetry  are  its 
clearness,  its  distinction  of  phrasing,  its  restraint.  He  is  not 
content  with  melody,  however  sweet.  Reason  controls  his 
imagination,  impelling  him  from  different  angles  to  exhibit 
interest  in  man's  nature  and  destiny.  For  him  perfection  of 
utterance  is  merely  a  means  to  an  end,  a  means  of  reaching 
the  intelligence  through  emotion. 

George  W.  Russell  (1867-  ),  whose  pen-name  is  A.  E., 
was  born  at  Lurgan  in  the  north  of  Ireland.  He  is  a  poet, 
playwright,  journalist,  and  painter.  In  earlier  years  he 
read  Oriental  literature,  an  experience  which  no  doubt  largely 
accounts  for  his  mysticism,  for  his  belief  that  things  seen  are 
less  real  than  things  unseen.  There  is  literary  kinship  or 
spiritual  affinity  between  William  Blake,  Mr.  Yeats,  Fiona 
Macleod,  and  Mr.  Russell. 

Among  Mr.  Russell's  volumes  of  verse  are  Homeward: 
Songs  by  the  Way  (1894),  The  Earth  Breath  (1898),  and  The 
Divine  Vision  (1904).  In  these  volumes  we  see  the  gentler 
side  of  the  Irish  temperament — its  wistfulness,  its  tenderness, . 
its  dreaminess.  Instead  of  the  blast  of  the  war-bugle  we  hear 
the  melodious  summons  to  fight  against  the  gaudy  trifles 
of  this  world.  In  the  midst  of  realities  Mr.Russell cherishes 
only  the  ideals  that  dwell  in  his  own  heart,  a  heart  sensitive 
to  beauty  of  thought  and  deed  and  form. 

Distinction  and  delicacy  mark  such  a  poem  as  Awakening, 
one  of  the  numbers  in  the  first  of  the  preceding  volumes : 

The  lights  shone  down  the  street 
In  the  long  blue  close  of  day. 
A  boy's  heart  beat  sweet,  sweet, 
As  it  flowered  in  its  dreamy  clay. 


RECENT  LITERATURE  431 

Beyond  the  dazzling  throng 
And  above  the  towers  of  men 
The  stars  made  him  long,  long, 
To  return  to  their  light  again. 

They  lit  the  wondrous  years, 
And  his  heart  within  was  gay ; 
But  a  life  of  tears,  tears, 
He  had  won  for  himself  that  day.1 

Laurence  Binyon  (1869-  ).  —  When  Admonitions  of 
the  Instructress  in  the  Palace  (1913)  was  published  by  Lau- 
rence Binyon,  the  public  first  became  aware  that  the  British 
Museum  had  in  its  service  a  highly  gifted  connoisseur,  who 
had  devoted  many  years  to  the  study  of  Chinese  and  Japanese 
art.  Previously  he  had  been  known  to  most  people  as  one  of 
the  most  promising  poets  of  the  present  generation,  and  the 
author  of  plays  such  as  Paris  and  (Enone  (1906)  and  Attila 
(1907). 

His  Lyric  Poems  (1894)  is  a  work  which  was  largely  inspired 
by  Matthew  Arnold,  but  London  Visions  (1896)  reveals  vigor 
and  independence.  One  poem  entitled  The  Statues  is  well 
worthy  of  comparison  with  Keats's  Isabella.  Good  sense  is 
glorified  by  happy  imagery  when  Mr.  Binyon  tells  of  the 
"glad  ones"  who  are  passing  along  the  street  in  the  evening. 
These  people  are  not  cruel.  They  are  simply  heedless  of 
"  the  statues,"  that  is,  of  the  deaf,  the  blind,  and  other 
unfortunates.  Later  volumes  of  verse  are  England  and 
Other  Poems  (1909)  and  The  Flight  of  the  Dragon  (1911). 

John  Masefield  (1875-  )  was  born  in  Shropshire.  He 
spent  a  roving  youth  on  water  and  land,  came  to  America  in 
his  twenty-eighth  year,  but  now  lives  in  England.  During 
these  years  he  was  able  to  gather  material  which  he  was 
shaping  into  prose,  into  drama  such  as  the  unsuccessful 

1  Copyright  by  The  Macmillan  Co. 


432 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Pompey  the  Great  (1910),  and  into  narrative  poetry.     This  is 
how  he  begins  a  sea-yarn  called  The  Port  of  Many  Ships,  one 

of  a  volume  of  weird  short  stories 
entitled  The  Mainsail  Haul 
(1913). 

Down  in  the  sea,  very  far 
down,  under  five  miles  of  water, 
somewhere  in  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, there  is  a  sea  cave,  all  roofed 
with  coral.  There  is  a  bright- 
ness in  the  cave,  altho  it  is  so  far 
below  the  sea.  And  in  the  light 
there  the  great  sea-snake  is 
coiled  in  immense  blue  coils, 
with  a  crown  of  gold  upon  his 
horned  head. 

He  sits  there  very  patiently 
from  year  to  year,  making  the 
water  tremulous  with  the  thresh- 
ing of  his  gills.  And  about  him 
at  all  times  swim  the  goggle- 
eyed  dumb  creatures  of  the  sea. 
He  is  the  king  of  all  the  fishes, 
and  he  waits  there  until  the 
j  udgement-day -1 


FIG.  155.  — John  Masefield. 


Only  a  master  of  prose  could  write  sentences  so  clear  and 
so  vivid.  Mr.  Masefield  has  also  done  notable  work  in 
domestic  tragedy,  that  is,  in  tragedy  whose  characters  are 
not  persons  of  social  distinction.  In  the  newest  type  of 
domestic  tragedy,  not  even  great  events  are  necessary.  The 
catastrophe  is  the  natural  outcome  of  the  ordinary  circum- 
stances of  life.  A  poor  orphan  lives  in  the  home  of  her  ill- 
tempered  aunt.  The  girl  is  sensitive  because  her  father  has 
been  hanged  in  Gloucester  jail  for  an  offence  of  which  he  was 
not  guilty.  The  girl  is  so  persecuted  by  her  aunt  and  her 

1  By  permission  of  The  Macmillan  Co. 


RECENT  LITERATURE  438 

cousin  that  at  last  she  is  heart-broken,  quarrels  with  her 
fickle  lover,  and  drowns  herself.  This  is  the  story  of  the 
Tragedy  of  Nan  (1908),  whose  dialogue  is  written  in  the  rural 
dialect  of  Gloucestershire.  It  is  a  literary  effort  of  extraor- 
dinary power,  much  more  impressive  than  most  of  the  so- 
called  successes  of  the  stage. 

The  scientific  spirit  which  takes  nothing  for  granted,  but 
proves  all  things,  has  helped  to  make  poetry  change  its  tune. 
Scenes,  perhaps  undreamt  of  by  Wordsworth,  have  yielded 
their  dark  secrets  to  modern  realism.  Realism,  the  unflinch- 
ing gaze  upon  things  as  they  are,  is  an  element  in  the  spirit  of 
the  age.  This  has  led  to  an  ever-widening  sympathy  with 
human  sorrow,  a  sympathy  that  leaps  out  from  the  pages  of 
Mr.  Masefield.  No  poet  was  ever  more  sensitive  to  suffering. 
The  Story  of  a  Round-House  and  Other  Poems  (1912)  contains 
a  long  narrative  in  seven-line  stanzas,  a  biographical  poem, 
and  many  short  poems  dealing  chiefly  with  the  sea.  Dauber 
is  an  account  of  a  lad  who  longed  to  become  a  painter.  When 
he  went  to  sea  he  had  some  rough  experiences.  The  poem, 
too  long  perhaps,  has  some  powerful  sea  pictures  and  no  little 
pathos.  If  neither  Shakespeare  nor  Whitman  nor  Kipling 
had  written  poetry,  Mr.  Masefield 's  work  might  have  been 
different.  He  is  original,  however,  in  the  best  sense  of  the 
term. 

Mr.  Masefield  has  revived  the  art  of  story-telling  in  verse. 
The  Daffodil  Fields  (1913)  is  a  long  narrative  poem  dealing 
with  country  life.  In  striving  to  make  poems  like  The 
Widow  in  the  Bye  Street  realistic,  Mr.  Masefield  did  not  scruple 
to  employ  slang  and  other  forms  of  rude  colloquial  speech. 
In  The  Daffodil  Fields  his  characters  are  educated  people  of 
Shropshire,  two  men  and  a  woman.  Both  men  are  in  love 
with  her,  but  she  prefers  the  less  worthy  of  the  rivals.  De- 
serted by  him,  she  marries  the  man  for  whom  she  has  no  affec- 
tion. She  repents  when  the  loved  one  returns.  Then  fol- 

2F 


434  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

lows  the  inevitable  tragedy.  The  theme  is  set  forth  with 
fidelity  to  human  nature,  yet  with  delicacy  of  feeling  and 
beauty  of  diction.  The  picturing  of  everyday  rural  manners 
is  accurate  as  well  as  poetic.  The  interest  and  emotional 
strength  of  this  poem  indicate  that  Mr.  Masefield  is  steadily 
growing  in  metrical  skill,  in  clearness  of  purpose,  and  in  the 
ability  to  carry  most  of  his  readers  wherever  he  cares  to  lead 
them.  He  has  excelled  in  many  kinds  of  writing,  but  it  is  as  a 
narrative  poet  that  he  seems  likely  to  find  a  place  of  honor  in 
the  history  of  English  literature. 

Wilfrid  Wilson  Gibson  (1878-  ),  more  than  any  of  the 
younger  English  poets,  selects  his  material  from  the  haunts 
and  the  labors  of  the  common  people,  but  he  is  not  pessimistic 
like  Mr.  Masefield,  because  he  has  a  deeper  insight  into  life's 
purpose.  His  early  poetry,  like  The  Golden  Helm  (1903)  and 
The  Nets  of  Love  (1905),  was  pretty  and  conventional.  Now 
his  art  is  vital  because  of  its  human  interest,  its  power  of 
portraying  the  heroism,  the  pathos,  the  beauty,  underlying 
themes  the  most  unpromising. 

Among  his  later  works  is  Daily  Bread  (1910),  a  series  of 
seventeen  little  poems  dealing  with  the  lives  of  working-folk. 
He  does  not  tell  everything;  he  leaves  something  to  the 
imagination.  Perhaps  the  most  dramatic  poem  is  The 
Night-Shift,  which  tells  of  a  coal-miner  caught  down  below 
in  a  pit  disaster,  while  his  young  wife  lies  ill  in  bed.  She 
fancies  she  hears  the  tapping  of  her  husband's  pick,  and  his 
mother,  who  alone  knows  that  the  man  is  dead,  tries  to  soothe 
Jenny,  her  daughter-in-law. 

Tamar.      A  pick  — 

Ah,  God ! 

Nay,  daughter,  there  is  nothing.  « 

You  must  lie  quiet  now 

Or  you  — 
Jenny.       Tap  —  tap  — 

It  goes  on  tapping,  tapping. 


RECENT  LITERATURE 


435 


In  the  dark  — 

It's  dark  —  so  dark  ; 

And  I  can  scarcely  breathe, 

The  darkness  lies 'so  heavily  upon  me 

As  though  I  wandered  somewhere  underground 

With  great  rocks  hanging  overhead 

So  close  that  my  hair  brushes  them 

Although  I  can  not  see  them.1 

Mr.  Gibson  deals  with  simple  things  in  a  simple  way.  The 
language  is  stripped  of  all  needless  ornament  in  Fires  (1912), 
which  contains  twenty-one  narrative  poems.  This  collec- 
tion forms  a  series  of  pictures  larger  and  more  truthful  than 
Daily  Bread.  Sombre  they  are,  but  not  hopeless.  The 
verse  is  often  irregular  and  experimental,  as  if  the  poet  were 
groping  for  new  possibilities 
in  verse.  They  are  poems  of 
transition,  poems  symbolic  of  a 
new  sense  of  brotherhood.  On 
the  whole  Mr.  Gibson's  work  is 
more  refined,  more  poetic,  than 
that  of  the  other  humanitarian 
poet,  Mr.  Masefield,  although  in 
sea  poetry  the  latter  has  no 
superior  at  the  present  moment. 

Alfred  Noyes  (1880-  ), 
whose  birthplace  is  Wolverhamp- 
ton,  in  Staffordshire,  was  writing 
verse  while  he  attended  Exeter 
College,  Oxford.  He  has  lec- 
tured in  both  Britain  and 
America,  and  in  1914  was  chosen  as  Visiting  Professor  of 
English  Literature  at  Princeton  University. 

Among  his  publications  in  England  are  The  Loom  of  Years 


FIG.  156.  —  Alfred  Noyes. 


1  By  permission  of  The  Macmillan  Co. 


436  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

(1902)  and  The  Flower  of  Old  Japan  (1903),  the  latter  of 
which  introduces  us  to  a  wonderland  where  delicate  lyrics 
charm  the  reader  with  their  fancy  and  romance.  In  The  Two 
Painters ,  for  instance,  - 

Peonies,  peonies  thronged  the  May 
When  in  royal-rich  array 

Came  Sawara  to  the  school 
Under  the  silvery  willow-tree  — 

To  the  school  of  Tenko  ! 
Silver  bells  on  a  milk-white  mule, 

Rose-red  sails  on  an  emerald  sea  ! 1 

Neither  The  Forest  of  Wild  Thyme  (1905)  nor  Forty  Sing- 
ing Seamen  (1907)  was  so  well  received  by  the  critics  as 
Drake  (1906-1908),  an  epic  which  singled  out  Mr.  Noyes 
from  other  living  poets.  Both  Swinburne  and  Kipling  ac- 
knowledged him  as  a  true  poet.  Drake,  the  old  sea-captain, 
is  taken  as  the  personification  of  Elizabethan  England,  an 
England  which  is  supposed  to  have  been  filled  with  high 
moral  purposes.  Spain,  on  the  other  hand,  is  represented  as 
the  type  of  evil  in  the  world.  The  ideals  are  noble,  even  if  we 
admit  that  the  poet  has  exaggerated  the  good  in  England 
and  the  evil  in  Spain.  In  spite  of  a  lack  of  fire  here  and  there, 
Drake  is  a  notable  achievement  in  stately  blank  verse, 
interspersed  with  beautiful  lyrics.  As  a  work  of  art  it  is 
superior  to  The  Enchanted  Island  (1909),  whose  moral 
teaching  is  too  direct  to  suit  every  reader  of  poetry. 
v  Among  the  latest  of  the  American  editions  of  the  works  of 
Mr.  Noyes  are  the  drama  entitled  Sherwood  (1911),  a  story 
of  Robin  Hood,  and  Tales  of  the  Mermaid  Tavern  (1913). 
Perhaps  the  Mermaid  tales  show  an  occasional  excess  of 
sentiment,  yet  they  are  full  of  mirth,  spirit,  and  genuine 
poetry.  Through  ballads  and  songs  the  figures  of  Raleigh 

1  Printed,  like  the  next  extract,  by  permission  of  The  Macmillan 
Co. 


RECENT  LITERATURE  437 

and  Shakespeare  and  many  another  leap  into  life  as  the  poet 
unfolds  his  panorama. 

And,  suddenly,  as  a  song  that  wholly  escapes 
Remembrance,  at  one  note,  wholly  returns, 
There,  as  I  knocked,  memory  returned  to  me. 
I  knew  it  all  —  the  little  twisted  street, 
The  rough  wet  cobbles  gleaming,  far  away, 
Like  opals,  where  it  ended  on  the  sky  ; 
And,  overhead,  the  darkly  smiling  face 
Of  that  old  wizard  inn.1 

The  two  volumes  of  Collected  Poems  (1913)  exhibit  great 
variety  in  subject  and  in  style,  though  the  poet  has  tried  few 
daring  experiments.  Mr.  Noyes  has  mastery  of  diction  and 
of  metre,  and,  like  Mr.  Masefield,  he  has  a  passion  for  the 
sea  in  all  its  aspects. 

These  two  poets  represent  two  different  tendencies  that 
are  more  or  less  present  at  every  stage  of  literature.  Each 
man  is  popular,  each  is  a  story-teller,  each  attempts  to 
glorify  life  through  sentiment  and  imagination.  Mr.  Noyes 
is  the  happier,  the  more  musical,  the  more  like  Tennyson  and 
other  masters  of  English  poetry.  He  is  the  chief  living  expo- 
nent of  poetic  romance,  of  verse  based  upon  idealism.  He  is 
endowed  with  the  historical  imagination,  with  reverence  for 
what  is  best  in  the  past.  Mr.  Masefield,  endowed  with  social 
imagination,  finds  his  chief  joy  in  a  serious  regard  for  the 
present,  in  seeing  men  and  things  as  they  are,  and  in  trans- 
forming them  through  the  divine  gift  of  insight  touched  with 
emotion. 

3.  PROSE  WRITERS 

William  Frend  De  Morgan  (1837-  ),  a  native  of  London, 
was  well  past  middle  age  when  he  wrote  his  first  and  best 
novel  entitled  Joseph  Vance  (1906),  the  story  of  a  waif  who 
sacrificed  himself  for  the  sake  of  another.  He  follows 

1  By  permission  of  the  Frederick  A.  Stokes  Company. 


438 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


Thackeray  and  Dickens  in  interrupting  the  narrative  by 
speaking  directly  to  the  gentle  .reader.  The  book  was 
popular,  not  by  reason  of  its  rather  weak  plot,  but  by  the 
skill  with  which  it  portrays  the  development  of  character. 
The  heroine  of  Alice-for-Short  (1907)  is  a  puny  girl  adopted 
by  an  artist  and  his  sister.  Here,  as  in  his  previous  work,  the 
author  looks  at  life  tolerantly.  His  eyes  seem  to  twinkle 
with  a  kindly  humor,  and  what  he  sees  he  describes  in  a 
leisurely  manner.  Somehow  Good  (1908),  while  less  pleasing 
than  its  two  predecessors,  is  better  constructed  than  either 
of  them.  It  Never  Can  Happen  Again  (1909)  is  superior  to 
An  Affair  of  Dishonour  (1910)  and  A  Likely  Story  (1911). 

In  drawing  portraits  of  humble 
people  Mr.  De  Morgan  is  careful 
and  sympathetic.  His  style  sug- 
gests the  Victorian  period. 

Joseph  Conrad  (1857-  ) 
gives  details  of  his  career  in  A 
Personal  Record  (1912).  His  full 
name  is  Joseph  Conrad  Korzen- 
iowski,  a  name  that  belongs  to 
the  Ukraine  in  Russia.  Left  an 
orphan  in  his  thirteenth  year,  the 
young  lad  of  Polish  parentage 
sailed  all  over  the  globe  in  the 
British  merchant  service,  rising 
to  the  rank  of  captain.  He  now 
lives  in  a  quiet  Essex  village. 

Lord  Jim  (1900)  tells  of  a  young  Briton  in  Eastern  waters. 
He  is  in  a  decrepit  old  steamer  with  hundreds  of  Arab  passen- 
gers. When  danger  comes,  Lord  Jim  forsakes  what  he  re- 
gards as  a  doomed  vessel,  and  he  never  forgives  himself  for 
his  weakness.  One  of  the  best  volumes  of  short  stories  is 
'Twixt  Land  and  Sea  (1912). 


FIG.  157.  —  Joseph  Conrad. 


EECENT  LITERATURE 


439 


The  fancy  of  Mr.  Conrad  often  turns  to  the  element  of 
blind  chance  in  human  life.  He  has  the  depressing  notion 
that  accident  is  a  leading  feature  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
If  the  bomb-thrower  in  Under  Western  Eyes  (1911)  had  not 
chanced  to  have  a  keen  eye,  there  would  have  been  no  story. 
Mr.  Conrad's  Chance  (1914),  a  work  of  genius,  deals  with  the 
effect  of  circumstances  upon  character.  The  heroine  believes 
that  no  one  could  be  permanently  attracted  to  her,  and  by 
chance  she  attains  happiness. 

As  a  painter  of  the  sea  and  of  tropical  life,  Mr.  Conrad  is  the 
great  living  master  of  English  prose  fiction.  He  has  always 
been  an  artist  in  the  use  of  words,  and  he  takes  pride  in  putting 
conscience  into  his  work.  His  adventure  stories  are  told  in  a 
roundabout  way,  yet  he  holds  the  attention  with  ease.  Nina 
of  Almayer's  Folly  (1894),  the  first  of  his  stories,  is  one  of  the 
finest  pictures  of  primitive  woman.  Mr.  Conrad  is  a 
writer  of  individuality.  For  those 
who  are  weary  of  the  commonplaces 
of  a  sheltered  civilization  his  works 
are  a  refreshing  tonic. 

Maurice  Henry  Hewlett  (1861- 
),  a  native  of  Kent,  attributes 
much  of  his  literary  taste  and  skill 
to  his  father,  but  he  speaks  indiffer- 
ently of  the  influence  of  school  and 
college  life.  He  was  fond  of  reading 
and  writing  long  before  he  went  to 
Oxford,  and  all  his  books  to  some 
extent  exhibit  the  impression  made  upon  him  by  his  literary 
predecessors. 

Mr.  Hewlett's  greatest  achievement  in  historical  ro- 
mance was  Richard  Yea-and-Nay  (1900).  It  is  not  the 
Richard  of  Ivanhoe  that  we  see,  but  the  same  monarch 
brought  to  life  by  the  magic  power  of  a  man  for  whom  bygone 


FIG.  158.  —  Maurice  Henry 
Hewlett. 


440 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


centuries  are  still  throbbing  with  reality.  Dignity  of  treat- 
ment and  swiftness  of  action  combine  to  make  a  memorable 
prose  romance. 

Later  writings  comprise  The  Song  of  Renny  (1911),  another 
medieval  romance  in  which  we  see  the  castle  of  Earl 
Gernulf.  Love  and  war  are  depicted  with  skill  and 
virility.  A  tale  of  early  nineteenth  century  English  life  is 
entitled  Mrs.  Lancelot  (1912).  Its  manner,  especially  in  the 
earlier  chapters,  suggests  to  most  readers  the  influence  of 
George  Meredith.  .  A  sequel  to  this  novel  is  Bendish  (1913), 
with  its  disguised  portraits  of  Byron,  Moore,  and  Shelley. 
Mr.  Hewlett  asserts  that  Lord  Bendish  is  not  Byron,  yet  he 
certainly  looks  like  a  caricature  of  the  English  poet.  The 
novel,  too,  like  Meredith  in  style,  is  cleverly  written.  It  is  as 
a  polished  writer  of  short  stories  and  of  lifelike  medieval 

romances  that  Mr.  Hewlett  will 
be  remembered,  for  somehow  his 
modern  novels  are  too  artificial 
to  be  convincing. 

Eden  Phillpotts  (1862-  ), 
like  Kipling,  was  born  in  India 
of  English  parents.  As  Mr. 
Thomas  Hardy  is  known  by  his 
powerful  Wessex  novels,  so  Mr. 
Phillpotts  has  won  fame  by  his 
novels  about  Dartmoor,  a  part 
of  Devonshire,  England.  One  of 
the  best  of  his  earlier  novels  is 
The  Children  of  the  Mist  (1898), 
wherein  with  rare  skill  and  sym- 

FIG.  159.  —  Eden  Phillpotts.  ,,          i  i      .    ,         ,1  i 

pathy    he    depicts    the    simple 

rural  folk  and  their  surroundings.  Some  of  the  scenes  are 
gloomy  and  depressing.  Widecombe  Fair  (1913)  is  the  great- 
est of  the  series  of  Devonshire  stories. 


EEC  EN  T  LITERATURE  441 

In  The  Joy  of  Youth  (1913)  the  hero  is  a  young  painter 
living  in  Florence.  Neither  this  novel  nor  From  the  Angle  of 
Seventeen  (1914)  is  worthy  to  rank  with  the  best  of  the 
Dartmoor  stories.  The  latter  story  shows  us  a  clever  youth 
of  seventeen  in  London.  As  a  realistic  novelist  of  the  moors 
Mr.  Phillpotts  is  second  only  to  Mr.  Hardy. 

William  John  Locke  (1863-  )  claims  the  Barbados,  West 
Indies,  as  his  birthplace.  He  received  his  degree  at  St.  John's, 
Cambridge,  and  later  he  became  an  architect.  The  novel  by 
which  he  is  best  known  is  The  Beloved  Vagabond  (1906), 
whose  hero  is  a  wandering  exile  named  Paragot.  In  The 
Fortunate  Youth  (1914)  the  hero  is  a  boy  who  grew  up 
from  the  slums  and  became  a  prominent  figure  in  English 
politics. 

In  the  kind  of  characters  with  whom  he  has  deepest  sym- 
pathy Mr.  Locke  resembles  Smollett  and  Dickens,  yet  his 
style  is  different  from  either.  Behind  his  drollery  and  his 
lively  fancy  is  abundant  knowledge  of  human  nature.  Where 
most  people  would  merely  pass  by  with  contempt,  he  finds 
something  lovable,  so  that  his  vagabonds  or  Bohemians  are 
never  tiresome. 

Richard  Pryce  (1864-  )  has  a  Welsh  surname,  but  he 
was  born  at  Boulogne,  France,  of  English  parents.  After 
spending  most  of  his  early  years  abroad,  he  went  to  Eng- 
land to  be  educated  at  Leamington.  Besides  plays  such  as 
The  Visit  (1909),  he  has  written  novels  that  are  persuasive 
and  interesting. 

The  leading  figure  in  Elementary  Jane  (1897)  is  a  little 
music-hall  singer  in  London.  She  loves  the  wrong  man,  yet 
she  is  true  to  her  choice.  As  a  sympathetic  and  able  study 
of  human  nature  the  novel  is  better  than  Jezebel  (1900), 
whose  heroine  is  the  high-spirited  daughter  of  an  English 
lord.  At  times  Jezebel  suggests  Meredith  or  Mr.  Hewlett. 
The  hero  of  Christopher  (1911)  is  not  eccentric  like  the  chief 


442  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

characters  in  Mr.  Locke's  works.  He  is  simply  a  man  who 
reveres  beauty  in  human  conduct. 

Few  male  novelists  understand  women  of  all  classes  so 
thoroughly  as  does  Mr.  Pryce.  Portrait  after  portrait  he  has 
sketched  with  truth  and  delicacy.  Neither  in  his  themes 
nor  in  his  style  is  he  sensational,  yet  he  is  a  realist  in  the  sense 
that  he  finds  pleasure  in  studying  the  ways  of  mankind.  No 
doubt  men  are  influenced  by  heredity,  but  this  is  not  the  sole 
explanation  of  human  conduct.  Fatalism,  the  idea  that  we 
are  the  playthings  of  heredity  and  environment,  is  a  weakness, 
whether  it  appears  in  Mr.  Hardy,  Mr.  Phillpotts,  or  in  Mr. 
Pryce.  Whatever  tends  to  sap  courage  ought  to  be  kept 
within  bounds,  for  men  and  women  are  free  agents  to  a  greater 
extent  than  some  novelists  fancy. 

Israel  Zangwill  (1864-  ),  the  son  of  a  Russian  Jew,  is  a 
Londoner  by  birth.  At  sixteen  he  became  both  author  and 
publisher  by  writing  a  story  and  going  into  partnership  with 
another  youth  in  the  publication.  Later  he  received  the 
bachelor's  degree  at  the  University  of  London. 

It  was  The  Children  of  the  Ghetto  (1892)  that  first  brought 
literary  recognition  to  its  author.  It  is  a  brilliant  revelation 
of  the  dreams  and  tragedies  of  life  in  the  Ghetto  or  Jewish 
quarter  of  London.  Three  of  his  other  works  of  prose  fiction 
are  Dreamers  of  the  Ghetto  (1898),  The  Mantle  of  Elijah  (1900), 
and  The  Grey  Wig  (1903). 

Besides  poems  like  Blind  Children  (1903),  Mr.  Zangwill  has 
written  plays  that  sparkle  with  epigrams.  The  War  God 
(1912)  is  a  short  tragedy  .in  blank  verse,  teaching  the  doctrine 
of  peace.  The  scene  is  laid  in  a  country  which  is  not  called 
Germany,  though  it  has  German  characteristics.  If  the 
poetry  is  not  of  the  highest  quality,  at  least  the  play  contains 
many  smooth  and  charming  passages,  and  there  is  no  little 
humor.  It  is  a  great  theme  which  prompted  The  Melting* 
Pot  (1913),  a  play  dealing  with  the  Jewish  immigrant  in 


RECENT  LITERATURE  443 

New  York.  Mr.  Zangwill  conceives  of  the  United  States  as 
a  place  for  the  fusion  of  different  races  into  a  great  new  race 
of  free  men.  The  author's  wit  and  idealism  convey  a  sense 
of  passionate  sincerity. 

THE  SHORT  STORY 

The  short  story,  in  the  popular  sense,  goes  back  to  the 
earliest  days  of  mankind.  The  myths  of  primitive  tribes, 
the  fairy  tales  and  fables  of  barbaric  tribes,  are  the  ancestors 
of  the  tale  or  simple  narrative  of  higher  civilization. 

There  is  a  difference  between  a  short  story  and  a  story  that 
is  merely  short.  Short  story  is  a  phrase  that  has  become 
technical  in  meaning.  Its  length  is  less  important  than  its 
structure.  Poe  regarded  it  as  a  story  which  leads  to  a  definite 
outcome  foreseen  by  its  author.  The  structure  of  the  plot, 
the  details  of  description,  the  choice  of  words,  as  in  the  case 
of  a  well-constructed  play,  contribute  to  form  a  finished  work 
of  art.  A  vivid  impression  is  made  upon  the  reader  by  the 
rapid  development  of  an  incident  to  its  necessary  climax. 

Out  of  the  character  sketches  of  Addison  and  Steele's 
Spectator  came  the  novel  of  Richardson  and  the  true  short 
story,  first  attempted  by  Irving  in  Rip  Van  Winkle  (1819) 
and  by  Scott  in  Wandering  Willie  (1824).  Poe,  the  first 
great  exponent  of  this  literary  type,  wrote  two  kinds  of  short 
stories.  In  the  one  the  action  grows  in  intensity  from  the 
first  paragraph  to  the  last,  as  in  Berenice  (1835).  In  the 
second  the  tangled  problem  is  followed  by  a  solution,  as  in 
The  Murders  of  the  Rue  Morgue  (1841).  Nathaniel  Haw- 
thorne in  stories  like  The  Birthmark  (1843)  and  Bret  Harte  in 
The  Luck  of  Roaring  Camp  (1868)  carried  on  Poe's  triumphs 
in  the  American  short  story.  When  Stevenson  had  written 
A  Lodging  for  the  Night  (1877)  and  other  short  stories,  he  was 
followed  by  Mr.  Kipling's  Without  Benefit  of  Clergy  (1890). 


444  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Thus  the  English  short  story  attained  the  highest  distinc- 
tion. 

It  is  not  merely  in  length  that  the  novel  and  the  short 
story  differ.  The  novel  presents  a  series  of  impressions, 
distinct  in  character,  whereas  the  short  story  conveys  a 
single  sharp  impression.  The  short  story  focuses  all  its 
power  upon  one  angle  or  phase  of  an  incident  or  a  character, 
and  it  achieves  its  purpose  quickly.  The  great  diversity  of 
interests  in  modern  life  tends  to  create  a  taste  for  the  one-act 
play,  the  wordless  drama  of  the  motion  picture,  and  the  subtle 
artistry  of  the  short  story.  Developed  in  America  and  in 
France,  the  short  story  became  a  new  mode  of  utterance  for 
men  of  genius  like  Mr.  Kipling,  who  have  shaped  it  into  a 
form  of  art  not  much  inferior  to  poetry. 

RUDYARD  KIPLING  (1865-        ) 

People  may  like  or  dislike  Mr.  Kipling ;  he  is  sure  to  attract 
attention.  As  a  child  he  played  about  the  streets  of  Bombay 
"  between  the  palms  and  the  sea  "  until  he  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land to  be  educated.  On  his  return  to  India  he  became  sub- 
editor of  a  newspaper  at  Lahore  (1882-1889),  contributing 
stories  and  verses  for  Anglo-Indian  periodicals.  He  has 
written  many  books  dealing  not  only  with  India  but  with  all 
parts  of  the  British  Empire,  and  in  recent  years  he  has 
become  the  poet  of  Anglo-Saxon  Imperialism. 

One  of  the  most  famous  of  Mr.  Kipling's  earlier  collections 
is  the  Barrack-Room  Ballads  (1892),  twenty-one  in  number. 
They  are  of  unequal  merit,  some  of  them  unredeemed  by  a 
touch  of  tenderness  and  pity,  yet  all  are  invested  with  human 
interest  to  a  high  degree.  The  best  is  Mandalay,  describing 
the  feelings  of  a  soldier  who  looks  back  regretfully  upon  a 
love  affair  in  the  Far  East.  The  poem  certainly  possesses  real 
melody  and  a  certain  pathos.  In  The  Seven  Seas  (1896)  the 


RECENT  LITERATURE 


445 


author  seeks  to  arouse  Britain  to  a  sense  of  her  destiny  as  a 
great  civilizing  power.  We  miss  the  rich  blustering  humor  of 
some  of  the  earlier  soldier  and  sailor  songs,  but  these  poems, 
in  spite  of  occasional  slang  and  Cockney  dialect,  are  more 
restrained.  All  are  conspicuous 
for  simplicity  and  directness.  In 
the  opening  Song  of  the  English 
Mr.  Kipling  rises  to  true  poetry. 
Songs  From  Books  (1912)  contains 
//,  a  brilliant  expression  of  man- 
liness, even  though  most  of  the 
stanzas  have  no  strong  lyric 
touch. 

As  poet  of  the  empire,  poet  of 
soldier  and  engineer,  poet  of  the 
people,  Mr.  Kipling  will  be  re- 
membered mainly  by  such  poems 
as  Mandalay  with  its  note  of 
homesickness,  McAndrew's 
Hymn,  and  the  noble  Recessional 
(1899). 

Kim  (1901),  among  the  novels, 
is  Mr.  Kipling's  highest  achieve- 
ment. Kim,  the  orphan  child  of  an  Irish  sergeant  in  India, 
grows  up  among  the  Hindus,  and  becomes  a  member  of  the 
British  Secret  Service.  His  adventures  throw  a  vivid  light 
upon  native  ways,  illustrating  the  gulf  that  separates  the 
Oriental  cast  of  mind  from  that  of  Europeans  and  Americans. 

Mr.  Kipling  has  succeeded  in  making  the  short  story  the 
principal  vehicle  for  his  ideas.  When  Plain  Tales  from  the 
Hills  (1887)  appeared  in  England,  it  was  like  the  discovery 
of  a  new  world.  These  stories  of  English  military  life  in 
India  caught  the  fancy  of  schoolboys  as  well  as  of  learned 
critics. 


FIG.  160.  —  Rudyard  Kipling. 


446  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

Mr.  Kipling's  most  fascinating  works  are  The  Jungle  Book 
(1894)  and  The  Second  Jungle  Book  (1895).  Mowgli,  a  man- 
child,  is  cared  for  by  a  she-wolf,  and  he  grows  up  among  the 
wild  beasts  or  "  people  of  the  jungle."  Their  nature  and 
their  habits  he  understands,  and  among  them  he  is  happy. 
Toward  children  Mr.  Kipling  has  always  shown  tenderness. 
Who  does  not  know  Wee  Willie  Winkie  (1888),  and  the  two 
children  in  Puck  of  Pook's  Hill  (1906),  and  in  They  the  souls 
of  little  dead  English  children  walking  in  the  wood?  No 
wonder  that  children  love  the  author  of  such  narratives. 

A  collection  of  later  short  stories  is  Actions  and  Reactions 
(1909).  If  they  lack  the  hot  enthusiasm  of  youth,  such  gems 
as  An  Habitation  Enforced  and  The  Bee  Hive  are  really 
impressive.  The  author  can  set  the  scene,  create  the  charac- 
ters, and  start  the  action  before  the  reader  is  aware  of  how  it 
has  all  been  done.  The  Dog  Harvey  (1914)  is  by  no  means  the 
first  short  story  in  which  Mr.  Kipling,  like  Walter  Scott, 
betrays  his  fondness  for  dogs. 

So  far  as  verse  is  concerned,  Mr.  Kipling  believes  that 
nothing  is  common  or  unclean.  He  employs  the  Elizabethan 
ballad  stanza,  the  nursery  rime,  the  popular  song,  and  any 
other  rhythm  whose  lilt  or  swing  may  suit  his  purpose.  In 
seeking  to  put  life  into  his  work  he  turns  to  the  idioms  and 
the  actual  dialogues  of  common  folk,  a  plan  which  has  been 
followed  by  later  verse-writers  like  Mr.  MasefiekL  Love  of 
mystery,  worship  of  the  man  who  has  done  something,  hunger 
for  fact,  are  elements  in  Mr.  Kipling's  varied  genius.  His 
reputation  rests  chiefly  upon  short  stories  like  The  Brushwood 
Boy.  An  inspired  journalist,  a  master  of  many  moods,  he 
has  a  true  feeling  for  the  value  of  words,  for  the  cadence 
that  carries  thought  with  greatest  ease.  No  Englishman 
and  few  Frenchmen  can  match  Mr.  Kipling  in  the  short 
story,  where  nothing  is  lost,  yet  much  is  left  to  the  imagi- 
nation. 


RECENT  LITERATURE 


447 


Herbert  George  Wells  (1866-  ).  —  When  we  meet  a 
stranger,  it  is  usually  the  eyes  that  first  attract  us,  but  in  the 
case  of  Mr.  Wells  we  are  attracted  by  his  sensitive  mouth,  the 
mouth  of  a  poet  and  a  dreamer.  A  native  of  Bromley,  Kent, 
in  turn  he  was  a  draper's  ap- 
prentice, a  student  of  science,  a 
teacher,  a  weaver  of  dreams.  He 
learned  to  write  by  editing  the 
students'  magazine  at  the  Royal 
College  of  Science,  and  then 
by  contributing  to  educational 
papers.  At  heart  he  is  romantic, 
idealistic,  a  dreamer,  yet  the 
trend  of  his  writing  is  scientific. 
In  choosing  such  themes  as  are 
found  in  The  War  of  the  Worlds 
(1898),  The  First  Man  in  the 
Moon  (1901),  and  The  Food  of 
the  Gods  (1904),  Mr.  Wells  resem- 
bles Jules  Verne,  the  French 
writer  of  prose  fiction. 

A  plea  for  socialism  is  the  essence  of  In  the  Days  of  the 
Comet  (1906).  Germany  and  Britain  were  at  war  before  the 
coming  of  the  Comet.  Warfare  ceases,  people  become  an- 
gelic, the  novelist's  dream  of  human  happiness  is  realized. 
Knowledge  of  women  is  shown  in  Marriage  (1912).  The 
lovers  elope,  and  each  is  astonished  to  find  that  the  other 
is  not  perfect.  Finally  they  go  to  wild  Labrador  and  find 
life  so  attractive  there  that  they  solve  their  difficulties 
outside  of  the  divorce  court.  The  book  is  clever  enough, 
even  if  it  contributes  little  to  the  solution  of  to-day's 
social  problems.  In  The  Passionate  Friends  (1913)  we  dis- 
cover a  social  and  political  treatise  in  the  guise  of  a  novel. 
Youthful  love  is  pictured  with  rare  sweetness  and  purity, 


Courtesy  of  Harper  and  Brothers 

FIG.  161.  — Herbert  George 
Wells. 


448 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


but  the  main  theme  is  rather  disagreeable.  The  heroine  is 
alive  and  natural;  the  other  characters  are  puppets  that 
echo  the  ideas  of  their  maker. 

Mr.  Wells  is  at  his  best  when  he  presents  scientific  ro- 
mances. No  one  knows  what  he  will  do  next,  for  he  has 
the  gift  of  bending  to  his  purposes  the  law  of  surprise. 

Arnold  Bennett  (1867-  )  was  born  at  Hanley  in  the 
pottery  district  of  North  Staffordshire,  the  region  which  in 

some  of  his  prose  fiction  is  named 
"  The  Five  Towns."  For  a  time 
he  was  in  a  lawyer's  office,  and  in 
1896  he  became  editor  of  a 
London  paper  called  Woman. 
One  of  the  most  prolific  of  cgjrent 
writers,  he  resembles  Messrs. 
Phillpotts  and  Wells  in  having 
written  some  works  whose  value 
is  transient.  The  Old  Adam 
(1913),  one  of  the  so-called  fan- 
tasies, is  sometimes  amusing, 
seldom  really  natural. 
Mr.  Bennett's  reputation  rests  not  upon  collections  of 
critical  essays  such  as  Fame  and  Fiction  (1901),  or  upon  witty 
plays  after  the  style  of  What  the  Public  Wants  (1909).  He 
mounted  the  rungs  of  the  ladder  of  fame  by  the  aid  of  volumes 
of  short  stories  like  The  Grim  Smile  of  the  Five  Towns  (1907) 
and  by  the  aid  of  his  more  serious  novels.  Partly  through 
study  and  admiration  of  French  prose  fiction,  and  partly 
through  the  experience  he  gained  while  editor  of  Woman, 
Mr.  Bennett  is  at  times  concerned  with  women  and  women's 
problems.  This  is  shown  in  his  masterly  novel  entitled 
The  Old  Wives'  Tale  (1908).  Two  Staffordshire  sisters, 
starting  with  the  cheeriness  of  healthy  girlhood,  are  described 
minutely  till  they  become  unhappy  aged  women,  ready 


Courtesy  of  "  Review  of  Rtuiews  ' 
FIG.   162.  —  Arnold  Bennett. 


RECENT  LITERATURE  449 


for  the  grave.  It  is  an  extraordinary  study  of  ordinary 
people. 

A  trilogy  is  a  series  of  three  stories  that  form  a  single  pic- 
ture or  history.  Clayhanger  (1910)  is  the  first  part  of  a  trilogy 
which  is  intended  to  show  how  old  English  customs  are  yield- 
ing to  the  influx  of  new  ideas.  A  taste  for  sociology  is  induc- 
ing the  more  ambitious  novelists  to  portray  the  life  of  a  whole 
community  through  the  study  of  individuals,  and  this  is 
what  we  find  in  these  two  great  character  sketches,  The  Old 
Wives'  Tale  and  Clayhanger.  Perhaps  both  novels  would 
have  been  better,  had  they  been  shorter. 

Sometimes  echoing  the  views  of  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw,  Mr. 
Bennett  discloses  little  real  sentiment  in  treating  of  love  and 
old  age.  Love  is  a  delusion,  and  old  age  is  an  inconvenience 
—  to  be  forgotten  as  soon  as  possible.  Before  it  has  become 
aware  of  the  flight  of  time,  youthful  enthusiasm  steadily 
shrivels  into  the  apathy  of  old  age.  This  view  of  life  may  be 
true  to  human  nature,  but  it  is  scarcely  the  whole  truth. 
Probably  Mr.  Bennett  does  not  intend  us  to  take  his  serious 
novels  too  seriously,  and  this  may  be  one  reason  why  he 
zigzags  from  sombre  realistic  novels  to  stories  that  are 
extravagant  and  jocular.  More  than  once  has  he  struck  that 
note  of  spiritual  intensity  which,  under  all  its  make-believe 
cynicism,  is  the  keynote  of  the  modern  world. 

Gilbert  Keith  Chesterton  (1874-  )  is  a  humorist  who 
enjoys  the  reputation  of  being  the  most  brilliant  and  wayward 
of  England's  literary  critics.  Not  to  speak  of  The  Wild 
Knight  and  Other  Poems  (1900),  he  has  written  stories  with 
odd  titles  such  as  Manalive  (1912)  and  The  Flying  Inn  (1914). 
The  former  teems  with  whimsical  fancy  and  clever  character 
sketching ;  the  latter,  in  the  guise  of  a  sort  of  romance, 
criticises  the  foreign  policy  of  the  author's  native  land. 

A  keen,  shrewd  judge  of  human  nature,  Mr.  Chesterton's 
pen-portraits  and  book  reviews  are  memorable.  There  is  no 


450  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

question  about  his  originality.  Probably  he  would  be  the 
last  man  to  expect  his  readers  to  agree  with  every  opinion 
expressed  in  a  work  like  Varied  Types  (1903).  Cold  logic  is 
foreign  to  his  temperament.  He  prefers  to  utter  his  views  in 
frequent  epigrams,  sudden  and  vivid  as  flashes  of  lightning. 
Stevenson  himself  had  no  surer  instinct  for  the  right  word,  the 
only  word.  What  is  Mr.  Chesterton's  art  in  its  essence  ?  It 
is  the  art  of  prodding  us  into  wakefulness,  the  art  of  disclos- 
ing glimpses  of  that  something,  at  once  poetic  and  prophetic, 
which  throbs  deep  within  human  nature  everywhere. 

SUMMARY 

1.  Recent  literature  of  the  British  Isles  reflects  social 
tendencies.     Some  writers  seek  the  improvement  of  society 
by  bringing  in  the  best  that  is  without ;  others  seek  to  find  a 
remedy  for  social  evils  by  changes  that  begin  within  the 
country.     The  former  are  romantic  like  Mr.  Kipling  and 
Mr.  Noyes ;   the  latter  are  realistic  like  Mr.  Shaw  and  Mr. 
Masefield. 

2.  Great  knowledge  of  stagecraft  characterizes  the  plays 
of  Mr.  Jones  and  Sir  Arthur  Wing  Pinero.     Mr.  Shaw,  more 
sensational  than  either  of  these  playwrights,  by  his  brilliant 
wit  appeals  to  the  head  rather  than  to  the  heart. 

3.  One  of  the  most  popular  of  recent  dramatists  is  Sir 
James  Barrie,  whose  plays,  like  his  novels,  possess  humor  and 
sympathy.     Mr.  Galsworthy,  also  a  novelist  and  playwright, 
is  a  realist. 

4.  Poetic  drama  has  Stephen  Phillips  as  one  of  its  repre- 
sentatives.    Mr.   Barker  is  writing  experimental  plays  in 
order  to  bring  the  stage  closer  to  real  life,  while  the  Irish 
dramatists  are  largely  interested  in  portraying  rural  life  in 
the  Ireland  of  to-day. 

5.  Recent  poetry  is  well  represented  by  Fiona  Macleod 


RECENT  LITERATURE  451 

(Wm.  Sharp)  in  Scotland,  by  Mr.  Watson  and  Mr.  Binyon 
in  England,  and  by  Mr.  Russell  in  Ireland. 

6.  Mr.  Masefield  and  Mr.  Gibson  are  both  realists,  the 
latter  of  whom  is  less  popular  but  more  polished.     It  is  in 
narrative   verse    that   the   former   excels.      Mr.    Noyes  is 
fond  of  romance  and  he  resembles  Mr.  Masefield  in  his  love 
of  the  sea. 

7.  In  prose  fiction  Mr.  De  Morgan  has  drawn  attention 
by  his   character   drawing,  and  Mr.   Conrad,   by  his   sea 
stories.      Mr.  Hewlett  is  noted  for  his  style,  especially  in 
historical  romance,  and  Mr.  Phillpotts  is  known  through  his 
realistic  novels  concerning  Dartmoor  in  Devonshire. 

8.  Eccentric  characters  make  the  strongest  appeal  to  Mr. 
Locke.     As.  for  Mr.  Pryce   he   resembles   Mr.  Bennett   in 
being  one  of  the  few  novelists  that  can  portray  life-like 
women.     Mr.  ZangwilPs  specialty  is  his  own  people,  the  Jews. 

9.  The  short  story  is  not  a  story  that  is  merely  short.     It 
is  a  highly  finished  literary  type  as  distinct  as  a  sonnet. 
Every  \vord  counts  for  something  in  producing  a  sense  of 
unity  and  completeness.     The  greatest  English  exponent  of 
the  short  story  is  Mr.  Kipling,  who  has  also  written  poetry 
and  novels. 

10.  The   specialty   of  Mr.   Wells   is   scientific   romance, 
while  that  of  Mr.  Chesterton  is  literary  criticism. 

TEST  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  has  caused  the  recent  revival  of  English  drama  ?    What 
is  its  chief  purpose  apart  from  entertainment  ? 

2.  Why  is  Mr.  Shaw  not  classed  with  the  Irish  school  of  play- 
wrights ?    Why  is  he  so  well  known  ?     Indicate  the  meaning  of  the 
title  Man  and  Superman. 

3.  Distinguish  between  wit  and  humor,  and  name  any  dramatist 
whom  you  regard  as  humorous.     In  what  way  did  journalism  aid 
Barrie  to  become  a  novelist  and  a  dramatist  ?     Compare  Barrie  and 
Galsworthy  in  regard  to  their  style. 


452  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

4.  In  what  poem  is  Jesus  represented  as  meeting  Virgil  ?    Do  you 
remember  any  of  the  heroes  or  heroines  mentioned  in  the  plays  of 
Mr.  Phillips  or  Mr.  Barker? 

5.  Write  a  letter  to  a  friend,  stating  what  you  know  about  the 
purpose  of  the  Irish  dramatic  movement. 

6.  In  the  form  of  an  essay  compare  any  two  of  the  living  poets. 

7.  Which  of  the  writers  of  prose  fiction  seem  to  be  most  interested 
in  the  common  people  ?     Give  a  reason  for  your  answer. 

8.  What  novelists  have  been  most  attracted  by  the  sea  ? 

9.  Which  living  writers  have  gained  fame  by  their  short  stories  ? 

10.  Explain  what  is  meant  by  Pharisees,  the  New  Drama,  domestic 
tragedy,  the  Ghetto,  and  trilogy. 

ADDITIONAL   AUTHORS   WITH    CHIEF   WORKS 

Dramatists.  —  George    Moore    of   Ballyglass    (1853-        ),   The 

Bending  of  the  Bough;  Frank  Frankfort  Moore  of  Limerick  (1855- 

),  The  Mayflower;   Edward  Martyn  (1859-        ),  The  Heather 

Field;  St.  John  Emile  Clavering  Hankin  (1869-1909),  The  Cassilis 

Engagement;    Max  Beerbohm  (1872-        ),  The  Happy  Hypocrite. 

Poets.  —  Katherine  Tynan  Hinkson  (1861—  ),  Collected  Poems; 
Henry  John  Newbolt  (1862-  ),  Admirals  All;  Herbert  Trench 
(1865-  ),  Deirdre  Wedded;  Richard  Le  Gallienne  (1866-  ), 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  and  Other  Poems;  Ethna  Carberry  (1866- 
1902),  The  Four  Winds  of  Erin;  Dora  Sigerson  Shorter  (1873-  ), 
The  Fair  Little  Maiden;  Richard  Middleton  (1882-1911),  Poems 
and  Songs. 

Novelists.  —  Rosa  Mulholland  (Lady  Gilbert,  1855-  ),.A  Round 
Table;  Rider  Haggard  (1856-  ),  King  Solomon's  Mines;  George 
Gissing  (1857-1903),  New  Grub  Street;  Jane  Barlow  (1857-  ), 
Irish  Idylls;  Sir  Arthur  Conan  Doyle  (1859-  ),  Sherlock  Holmes; 
Samuel  Rutherford  Crockett  (1860-1914),  Strong  Mac;  Arthur 
Christopher  Benson  (1862-  ),  The  Isles  of  Sunset  (short  stories) ; 
William  Cook  Mackenzie  (1862-  ) ,  The  Lady  of  Hirta;  Sir  Arthur 
Quiller-Couch  (1863-  ),  The  Splendid  Spur;  William  Wymark 
Jacobs  (1863-  ),  Many  Cargoes;  Arthur  Morrison  (1863- 
),  Tales  of  Mean  Streets;  Frank  Danby  (Mrs.  Julia  Frankau, 
1863-  ),  Pigs  in  Clover;  Anthony  Hope  (Anthony  Hope  Hawkins, 
1863-  ),  The  Prisoner  of  Zenda;  Neil  Munro  of  Inveraray  (1864- 
),  John  Splendid;  Marie  Corelli  (1864-  ),  The  Sorrows  of 
Satan;  Robert  Smythe  Hichens  (1864-  ),  The  Garden  of  Allah; 


EECENT  LITERATURE  453 

Guy  Newell  Boothby  (1867-  ),  Pharos  the  Egyptian;  Seumas 
MacManus  (1870-  ),  The  Chimney  Corner;  Alfred  Ollivant 
(1874-  ),  Bob,  Son  of  Battle,  a  famous  dog  story;  Mrs.  Henry 
Dudeney  (1875-  ),  Folly  Corner. 

Essayists. — William  Archer  (1856-  ),  Masks  or  Faces; 
Arthur  Symons  (1865-  ),  Plays,  Acting,  and  Music;  Edward 
Verrall  Lucas  (1868-  ),  Life  and  Letters  of  Charles  and  Mary 
Lamb;  Hilaire  Belloc  (1870-  ),  Caliban's  Guide  to  Letters. 

SUPPLEMENTARY   READING 

For  the  convenience  of  readers  who  may  desire  to  become  more 
familiar  with  the  leading  twentieth-century  writers,  the  American 
publisher  of  each  author's  works  is  herewith  submitted :  namely, 
Jones  (Macmillan) ;  Pinero  (Baker  Co.) ;  Shaw  (Brentano,  and 
John  Lane  Co.) ;  Barrie  (Scribner,  and  Doran  Co.) ;  Galsworthy 
(Scribner) ;  Stephen  Phillips  (Macmillan,  and  John  Lane) ;  Barker 
(Mitchell  Kennerley) ;  Gregory  (Putnam's,  and  Scribner) ;  Yeats 
(Macmillan) ;  Synge  (Luce  Co.) ;  Fiona  Macleod  (The  Mosher  Press, 
Portland,  Maine) ;  Watson  (John  Lane  Co.) ;  Russell  (Macmillan, 
and  Mosher  Press) ;  Binyon  (Button,  and  John  Lane) ;  Masefield 
(Macmillan) ;  Gibson  (Macmillan) ;  De  Morgan  (Holt) ;  Conrad 
(Doubleday  Page,  and  Harper);  Hewlett  (Scribner);  Phillpotts 
(Macmillan,  Little  Brown,  and  John  Lane  Co.) ;  Locke  (John 
Lane  Co.) ;  Pryce  (Houghton) ;  Zangwill  (Macmillan) ;  Kipling 
(Doubleday,  Page) ;  Wells  (Harper) ;  Bennett  (Doran  Co.,  and 
Dutton) ;  Chesterton  (John  Lane  Co.,  and  Dodd  Mead). 
Doubleday  Page  will  mail  booklets  upon  Conrad  and  upon 
Kipling  (with  bibliography),  five  cents  each. 

The  following  works  are  also  recommended : 

E.  A.  Albright,  The  Short  Story,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan),  $.90. 
Charlton  Andrews,  The  Drama  of  To-day,  Philadelphia  (Lippin- 

cott),  $1.50.  Discusses  British,  Continental,  and  American 
drama. 

W.  Archer,  Play  making,  a  Manual  of  Craftsmanship,  Bost.  (Small, 
Maynard),  $2.00. 

W.  Archer,  Poets  of  the  Younger  Generation,  N.  Y.  (John  Lane), 
$6.00.  Includes  Binyon,  Kipling,  Stephen  Phillips,  Watson,  Yeats. 

F.  Bickley,  John  Millington  Synge,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $.75. 

E.  Bjorkman,  Voices  of  To-morrow,  critical  studies,  N.  Y.  (Mitchell 
Kennerley),  $1.50.  Includes  Conrad  and  Gissing. 


454  ENGLISH  LITERATURE 

M.  Bonner,  Maurice  Hewlett,  a  critical  review,  Bost.  (J.  Luce  Co.). 

M.  Bourgeois,  John  Synge  and  the  Irish  Theatre,  N.  Y.  (Mac- 
millan),  $2.50. 

G.  K.  Chesterton,  George  Bernard  Shaw,  an  illustrated  biog- 
raphy, N.  Y.  (John  Lane),  $1.50. 

F.  T.  Cooper,  Some  English  Story  Tellers,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  $1.60. 
Includes  Conrad,  De  Morgan,  Hewlett,  Phillpotts,  Kipling,  Locke, 
Galsworthy,  Bennett,  Ollivant,  Hichens. 

R.  M.  Deacon,  Bernard  Shaw  as  Artist-Philosopher,  N.  Y.  (Lane), 
$1.00. 

A.  Dukes,  Modern  Dramatists,  Chicago  (C.  H.  Sergal),  $1.50. 
Includes  Shaw,  Barker,  Galsworthy. 

J.  B.  Esenwein,  Studying  the  Short  Story,  N.  Y.  (Hinds,  Noble), 
$1.25. 

Lady  Gregory,  Our  Irish  Theatre,  N.  Y.  (Putnam's),  $1.15. 

E.  E.  Hale,  Jr.,  Dramatists  of  To-Day,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  $1.50. 
Includes  Pinero,-Shaw,  Stephen  Phillips. 

Clayton  Hamilton,  The  Theory  of  the  Theatre,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  $1.50. 

Clayton  Hamilton,  Studies  in  Stagecraft,  N.  Y.  (Holt),  $1.50. 

A.  Henderson,  European  Dramatists,  Cincinnati  (Stewart  &  Kidd 
Co.v),  $1.50.  Includes  Barker,  Shaw,  Wilde. 

P.  P.  Howe,  Dramatic  Portraits,  N.  Y.  (Mitchell  Kennerley), 
$1.50.  Includes  Pinero,  Jones,  Barrie,  Wilde,  Shaw,  Barker,  Gals- 
worthy. 

H.  Huneker,  Iconoclasts;  a  book  of  dramatists,  N.  Y.  (Scribner), 
$1.50.  Includes  Shaw,  etc. 

A.  Jessup  and  H.  S.  Canby,  The  Book  of  the  Short  Story,  N.  Y. 
(Appleton),  $1.10. 

Henry  Arthur  Jones,  Renascence  of  the  English  Drama,  N.  Y. 
(Macmillan),  $1.75. 

J.  M.  Kennedy,  English  Literature,  Lond.  (Sampson  Low), 
$2.00.  Includes  Shaw,  Wells,  Yeats,  Fiona  Macleod,  Binyon,  Le 
Gallienne,  Gissing. 

R.  Le  Gallienne,  Rudyard  Kipling;  a  criticism,  N.  Y.  (Lane),  $1.50. 

Brander  Matthews,  The  Short  Story,  N.  Y.  (Amer.  Book  Co.),  $1 .00. 

Justin  Hun tley  McCarthy,  Irish  Literature,  10  vols.,  N.  Y.  (Bige- 
low  Smith),  $37.50. 

P.  Elmer  More,  The  Drift  of  Romanticism,  Bost.  (Houghton),  $1.25. 

Alfred  Noyes,  Collected  Poems,  2  vols.,  N.  Y.  (Stokes),  $3.00. 

W.  Lyon  Phelps,  Essays  on  Modern  Novelists,  N.  Y.  (Macmillan), 
SI  .50.  Includes  Kipling,  De  Morgan,  Hardy,  Ollivant. 


EECENT  LITERATURE  455 

Mrs.  Sharp,  Collected  Papers,  Critical  and  Reminiscent,  N.  Y. 
(Duffield),  $1.50.  The  papers  are  those  of  Fiona  Macleod. 

C.  Weygandt,  Irish  Plays  and  Playwrights,  Bost.  (Houghton), 
$2.00.  Includes  Yeats,  Russell,  Gregory,  Synge,  and  Fiona  Mac- 
leod (a  Scot). 

W.  A.  Young,  A  Kipling  Dictionary.  Characters  and  scenes  in 
the  stories  and  poems,  N.  Y.  (Button),  $3.00. 


DIGEST 

A  DIGEST  of  the  principal  literary  events,  used  with  or  with- 
out the  summary  and  the  test  questions  toward  the  close 
of  each  chapter,  ought  to  prove  of  great  value  in  reviewing 
whatever  reading  or  study  has  been  accomplished. 

For  the  sake  of  precision  this  book  contains  the  chief  dates 
of  English  literary  history,  so  far  as  they  are  known,  but  no 
one  dreams  of  memorizing  all  or  even  most  of  them.  What  is 
essential  is  to  have  a  clear  conception  of  the  century  or  the 
period  when  an  important  writer  lived.  In  addition  it  is 
desirable  to  know  the  name  and  the  nature  of  one  or  more  of 
his  best  works,  especially  those  that  are  expressive  of  the  age 
in  which  he  played  his  part. 

Any  one  who  wishes  to  extend  this  digest  can  easily  do  so  by 
reference  to  the  body  of  the  text.  The  main  thing  is  to  be 
able  to  trace  the  development  of  English  literature  century 
after  century,  as  it  continues  to  shape  itself  in  harmony  with 
the  changing  ideas  and  ideals  of  humanity.  A  vision  of  this 
sort  will  fill  us  writh  a  burning  desire  to  read  and  enjoy  the 
choicest  prose  and  poetry.  Since  all  literature  is  social  in 
origin,  a  few  social  or  political  events  are  presented  in  a 
parallel  column,  but  not  for  the  purpose  of  memorizing. 
Social  events  are  merely  the  background  of  literary  events. 


456 


DIGEST 


457 


TIME 

EVENT 

Century 

Period 

Literary 

Social 

1st  B.C. 

Earliest 
Prior  to 
449  A.D. 

Oral  prose  and  verse 

Julius  Caesar  in  Brit- 
ain, 55  B.C. 

1st  A.D. 

Writing  introduced 

Partial   Roman    con- 
quest, 43  A.D. 

3d 

Alphabet  familiar 

Missionaries    in    Ire- 
land 

5th 

Anglo- 
Saxon 
449-1066 

Magic  verses,  etc. 

Angles  and  Saxons  in 
Britain   about   449 

A.D. 

6th 

Gildas  writes  in  Latin 

7th 

Widsith,          Beowulf, 
Caedmon 

English    students    in 
Ireland 

8th 

Latin  letter  by  Alcuin 
Dream  of  the  Cross 
Cynewulf  s  poems 
Bede's    Church    His- 
tory 

9th 

Chronicle   about   the 
Danes 
King  Alfred's  Trans- 
lations 

10th 

Battle  of  Brunanburh 
Maldon 
^Elfric's  prose 

Alfred  dies,  901 
Battle  of  Maldon,  991 

llth 

Wulf  stan's  prose 

Anglo- 
Norman 
1066-1300 

Apollonius  of  Tyre 

Edward      the      Con- 
fessor, 1042 
Norman      Conquest, 
1066 
First  Crusade,  1095 

12th 

Geoffrey      of      Mon- 
mouth's  History 
Love-songs 

Richard  I,  1189-1199 

13th 

Layamon's  Brut 
Ancren  Riwle 
The  Debate 
Cuckoo  Song 

Magna  Charta,  1215 

458 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


TIME 

EVENT 

Century 

Period 

Literary 

» 

Social 

14th 

Chaucer 
1300-1400 

Piers  Plowman 
Pearl 
Barbour's  Bruce 
Wyclif  s  Bible 
Mandeville's     Voyage 
and  Travel 
Chaucer's     Canter- 
bury Tales 

The  Black  Death 

Battle    of    Bannock- 
burn,  1314 

Ballads 

Young  Beichan 
Bewick  and  Grahame 
King  Estmere 
Battle  of  Otterburn 
Sir  Patrick  Spens 
Robin  Hood  Ballads 

Battle  was  in  1388 

15th 

Transition 
1400-1564 

Kingis  Quair 
Malory's     Morte 
d'  Arthur 
Poems    of    Henryson 
and  Dunbar 

Turks    capture    Con- 
stantinople, 1463 
English  printing,  1476 
Columbus    in    Amer- 
ica, 1492 

16th 

Poems  of  Douglas 
More's  Utopia  (Latin) 
Wyatt  and  Surrey 

Henry  VIII,  1509- 
1547 

Early 
Dramatic 

Lyndsay's    Satire    of 
the  Three  Estates 
Ralph  Roister  Doister 
Gammer      Gurton's 
Needle 
Gorboduc 

Shake- 
spearean 
1564r-1616 

Sidney's  Arcadia 
Spenser's  Faerie 
Queene 
Bacon's  Essays 
Marlowe's  tragedies 
Shakespeare's    Julius 
Ccesar,  Hamlet,  etc. 

Elizabeth,  1558-1603 
First  English  theatre, 
1576 
Drake  sails  round  the 
world,  1577-1580. 
Raleigh  founds  a  Col- 
ony in  Virginia, 
1585. 

17th 

Miltonic 
1616-1660 

Authorized     Version 
of  Bible 
Ben    Jonson's    plays 
and  poems 

James  I,  1603-1625 

Pilgrim     Fathers     in 
America,  1620 

DIGEST 


459 


TIME 

INVENT 

Century 

Period 

Literary 

Social 

Beaumont  and 
Fletcher 
Walton's        Compleat 
Angler 
Bunyan's       Pilgrim's 
Progress 
Milton's  L'  Allegro,  II 
Penseroso,  etc. 

Civil  War  begins  in 
1642 

Restoration 
166O-1700 

Locke's  Essay  concern- 
ing Human  Under- 
standing 
Pepys's  Diary 
Dry  den's    prose    and 
poetry 

Charles  II,  1660-1685 
Royal  Society 
founded  in  1662 
James  II,  1685-1688 
William    and    Mary, 
1689-1702 

18th 

Classical 
1700-1760 

Defoe's      Robinson 
Crusoe 
Swift's       Gulliver's 
Travels 
Addison  and  Steele's 
The  Taller  and  The 
Spectator,  including 
the    Sir    Roger    de 
Coverley  Papers 
BoswelTs       Life       of 
Johnson 
Burke's     Speech      on 
Conciliation  with 
America 
Pope's    Rape    of    the 
Lock 
Gray's  Elegy 

Anne,  1702-1714 

First    London    daily 
paper,  1702 

Battle  of»Culloden, 
1746 

The  Novel 

Richardson's  letter- 
novels 
Prose  fiction  of  Field- 
ing 
Sterne  and  Smollett 
Goldsmith's   Vicar  of 
Wakefield 

George  II,  1727 

Romantic 
1760-1837 

Cowper's  John  Gilpin 
and  other  poems 

American  Revolution, 
1775 

460 


ENGLISH  LITERATURE 


TIME 

EVENT 

Century 

Period 

Literary 

Social 

Macpherson's  Ossian 

French  Revolution, 

1789 

Burns's     poems     and 

Mutinies  in  the  navy, 

songs 

1797 

^ 

Poems  of  Wordsworth 

Irish  rebellion,  1798 

4| 

Coleridge's  Ancient 

First  practical  steam- 

^^ 

Mariner,    Chris- 

boat,  1802 

label,  and  Kubla 

Khan. 

Southey's  Poems  and 

Life  of  Nelson 

19th 

Byron's  Childe  Harold 

Prohibition  of    the 

and  other  poems 

English  Slave 

Trade,  1807 

Shelley  and  Keats 

Battle    of    Waterloo, 

Prances  Burney's  Eve- 

1815 

lina 

Davy  invents    safety 

Maria   Edgeworth's 

lamp,  1815 

The  Absentee,  etc. 

First  steamer  crosses 

Jane  Austen's  novels 

Atlantic,  1819 

Essays  of  Lamb,  Ha2^ 

First  railway,  1824 

litt,   De  Quincey, 

Trade  Unions,  active 

and  others 

1825 

, 

Scott's    Lady    of    the 

Abolition  of   slavery 

Lake,  Marmion, 

in  the  British  Em- 

and the  novels 

pire,  1833 

Victorian 

Tennyson's  The  Prin- 

Electric telegraph, 

1837-1900 

cess,    Idylls    of   the 

1837 

King,  etc. 

Photography,  1839 

Browning's   Cavalier 

First  employment  of 

Tunes,    The    Lost 

chloroform  in  sur- 

Leader, etc. 

gery,  1847 

Arnold's         Forsaken 

First  successful 

Merman  and  Sohrab 

Atlantic  cable,  1858 

and  Rustum 

American  Civil  War 

Carlyle's     Essay     on 

ends  in  1865 

Burns 

Trevelyan's     Life    of 

Macaulay 

Newman's  novels  and 

poem, 

DIGEST 


461 


TIME 

EVENT 

Century 

Period 

Literary 

Social 

Thackeray's      novels 

and  lectures 

Dickens  's  novels 

Mrs.  Gaskell's  Cran- 

ford 

Reade's    The   Cloister 

and  the  Hearth 

Kingsley's    Westward 

Ho!  and  Hereward 

the  Wake 

George  Eliot's  novels 

Ruskin's  Sesame  and 

Lilies 

Blackmore's  Lorna 

Doone 

Discovery  of  so-called 

Huxley's  Autobi- 

X-rays, 1895 

ography  and  Lay 

National  Insurance 

Sermons 

for  British  wage- 

Novels    of    Meredith 

earners,  1912 

and  Stevenson 

INDEX 


Abbot,  The,  Scott's,  313. 

Abou  Ben  Adhem,  Leigh  Hunt's,  305. 

Absalom  and  Achitophel,  Dryden's, 
209-210. 

Absentee,  The,  Maria  Edgeworth's, 
302. 

Accent  in  Anglo-Saxon  verse,  15. 

Actors  in  sixteenth  century,  112. 

Adam  Bede,  George  Eliot's,  384. 

Addison,  Joseph,  218  ;  outline  of  life, 
225;  poetry  of,  225-226;  prose, 
226-;  dramas,  226;  the  De  Coverley 
Papers,  227-228;  place  of,  in  lit- 
erary history,  228. 

Adonais,  Shelley's,  296-297. 

Advancement  of  Learning, TZacon's,  132. 

^Elfric,  Anglo-Saxon  prose  writer,  30. 

jEneid,  Gavin  Douglas's  translation, 
101 ;  Surrey's  translation,  102. 

Affair  of  Dishonour,  An,  De  Mor- 
gan's, 438. 

Akenside,  Mark,  244. 

Alastor,  Shelley's,  295. 

Alchemist,  The,  Jonson's,  173. 

Alcuin,  Latin  letter  by,  19-20. 

Aldhelm,  bishop  and  singer,  19. 

Alexander's  Feast,  Dryden's,  212. 

Alexander  Selkirk,  Cowper's,  266. 

Alfred,  King,  work  of,  for  English 
literature,  26-29  ;  feudalism  exist- 
ing at  time  of,  36. 

Alfred,  Thomson's  masque,  239. 

Alice- for- Short,  De  Morgan's,  438. 

Allegories  in  verse,  54-55. 

All  for  Love,  Dryden's,  208. 

Allingham,  William,  406. 

Alliteration,  in  Anglo-Saxon  verse, 
15  ;  reasons  for  preference  for  rime 
to,  in  English  poetry,  48 ;  m  Pearl 
and  Piers  Plowman,  56. 


Amazing  Marriage,  The,  Meredith's, 

395. 

Amelia,  Fielding's,  251. 
Anatomy    of    Melancholy,    Burton's, 

177-178. 

Ancient    Mariner,    Coleridge's,    out- 
line of,  283-284. 
Ancren  Riwle,  The,  44. 
Andrew  of  Wyntoun,  105. 
Angles,  the,  9-10. 
Anglo-Irish  religious  songs,  47-48. 
Anglo-Saxons,  invasion  of  Britain  by, 

9-10;    poetry    of,     11-24;     prose 

literature,  25-30. 
Annus  Mirabilis,  Dryden's,  207. 
Apollonius  of  Tyre,  Greek  romance, 

39. 

Apologie  for  Poetrie,  Sidney's,  124. 
Apologia   pro    Vita   Sua,  Newman's, 

370. 

Arbuthnot,  John,  244. 
Arcades,  Milton's  masque,  190. 
Arcadia,  Sidney's,  123-124,  247. 
Archer,  William,  453. 
Areopagitica,  Milton's,  191. 
Aretina,  Mackenzie's,  203,  247. 
Aristocracy,    heroic    poems    of    the, 

13. 

Armada,  The,  Macaulay's,  368. 
Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  406. 
Arnold,     Matthew,     comparison     of 

Dryden  and,  209 ;    life  and  works, 

344-348;    place  in  literature,  348. 
Art,  Ruskin's  works  on,  387-388. 
Arthur,   King,   and  his  knights,  41 ; 

development  of  romance  of,  42. 
Aryan  race,  the,  2-3. 
Ascham,     Roger,     Schoolmaster    by, 

122. 
Astrolabe,  Treatise  on  the,  Chaucer's, 

64. 
As  You  Like  It,  Shakespeare's,  148. 


463 


464 


INDEX 


Atalanta    in    Calydon,    Swinburne's, 

355-356. 

Augustine,  St.,  Soliloquies  by,  29. 
Auld  Lang  Syne,  Burns,  276. 
Aurora  Leigh,  Mrs.  Browning's,  326. 
Austen,  Jane,  302-303. 
Austin,  Alfred,  354. 
Ayton,  Sir  Robert,  198. 
Aytoun,  W.  E.,  406. 

B 

Bacon,  Francis,  career  and  works, 
130-132. 

Bagehot,  Walter,  407. 

Balder  Dead,  Arnold's,  347. 

Bale,  John,  118. 

Ballads,  popular,  75  ff. ;  defined, 
75 ;  diffusion  of,  75-76  ;  date  of, 
76;  origin,  76-77;  classification 
of,  77 ;  Sir  Patrick  Spens,  78-80 ; 
Hebridean,  80-81 ;  oral  English, 
81-82;  broadsides,  82;  chap 
books,  83  ;  influence  on  other  types 
of  poetry,  83-84;  Scott's,  309; 
Kipling's,  444-445. 

Banim,  Michael,  319. 

Barbour,  John,  57-59. 

Barclay,  Alexander,  105. 

Barker,  H.  Granville,  420-421. 

Barlow,  Jane,  452. 

Barrack-Room  Ballads,  Kipling's,  444. 

Barrie,  Sir  J.  M.,  414-415. 

Barrow,  Isaac,  214. 

Barry  Lyndon,  Thackeray's,  372. 

Bartholomew  Fair,  Jonson's,  173. 

Battle  of  Brunanburh,  The,  Tenny- 
son's, 16-17. 

Battle  of  Otterburn,  The,  historical 
ballad,  77. 

Battle  of  the  Baltic,  The,  Campbell's, 
288. 

Battle  of  the  Books,  The,  Swift's,  223. 

Baxter,  Richard,  Saint's  Everlasting 
Rest,  198. 

Beattie,  James,  319. 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  168,  175- 
176. 

Beaux'  Stratagem,  The,  Farquhar's, 
205. 

Beckford,  William,  319. 


Bede,  the  Venerable,  quoted,  10  ; 
story  of  Csedmon,  17-18 ;  debt 
to  Gildas,  25 ;  consideration  of 
work  of,  25-26. 

Beerbohm,  Max,  452. 

Bees,  ancient  charm  for  swarming, 
11. 

Belloc,  Hilaire,  453. 

Bells  and  Pomegranates,  Browning's, 
338. 

Bennett,  Arnold,  448. 

Benson,  A.  C.,  452. 

Beowulf,  epic  poem,  12-13  ;  author- 
ship of,  14-15  ;  Dream  of  the  Cross 
compared  with,  22-23  ;  one  of  the 
earliest  of  stories,  246. 

Berkeley,  George,  244. 

Besant,  Sir  Walter,  382. 

Bewick  and  Grahame,  romantic 
ballad,  77. 

Bible,  Wyclif 's,  60  ;  Tyndale's  trans- 
lation, 105 ;  translation  and  pub- 
lication of  Authorized  Version, 
165-166. 

Binyon,  Laurence,  431. 

Birds  in  Anglo-Saxon  poetry,  23-24. 

Birrell,  Augustine,  407. 

Bitter  Cry  of  the  Children,  The,  Mrs. 
Browning's,  325. 

Black,  William,  406. 

Blackmore,  R.  D.,  391. 

Blair,  Robert,  244. 

Blake,  William,  271-272. 

Blank  verse,  introduction  of,  102 ; 
first  English  play  in,  116;  Kyd's 
tragedies  in,  134-135. 

Bleak  House,  Dickens's,  379. 

Blessed  Damozel,  The,  Rossetti's,  349. 

Boadicea,  Cowper's,  266. 

Boccaccio,  64. 

Boethius,  Consolation  of  Philosophy 
by,  29. 

Book  of  Snobs,  Thackeray's,  372. 

Book  of  the  Duchess,  The,  Chaucer's, 
65,  66-67. 

Boothby,  G.  N.,  453. 

Boy-actors,  134,  167-168;  effect  on 
drama,  168-169. 

Boyle,  Robert,  201,  214. 

Break,  Break,  Break,  Tennyson's, 
329. 


INDEX 


465 


Bridges,  Robert,  406. 

Britain,  earliest  natives  of,  3-4 ; 
different  peoples  blended  in,  4 ; 
Caesar's  visits  to,  4 ;  civilization  of 
early  inhabitants,  4-5 ;  Roman 
conquest  of,  5 ;  earliest  writings, 
5-6  ;  Anglo-Saxon  period,  9-30  ; 
Norman-English  period,  35  ff. 

Broadside  ballads,  82 ;  Goldsmith's, 
256. 

Bronte,  Charlotte,  382. 

Bronte,  Emily,  382. 

Brown,  Dr.  John,  406. 

Browne,  Sir  Thomas,  178. 

Browning,  Elizabeth  Barrett,  67 ; 
life  and  poetical  production,  324- 
326  ;  place  in  literature,  326-327. 

Browning,  Robert,  career  and  works, 
336-343  ;  place  in  literature,  343- 
344. 

Bruce,  The,  Barbour's,  57-59. 

Brunanburh,  poems  recording  vic- 
tory of,  16. 

Brushwood  Boy,  The,  Kipling's,  446. 

Brut,  Layamon's,  42. 

Bryce,  James,  407. 

Buckle,  Henry  Thomas,  406. 

Bulwer,  Edward  George,  Lord  Lyt- 
ton,  406. 

Bunyan,  John,  career  and  works, 
180-183. 

Burbage,  Richard,  133. 

Burke,  Edmund,  233-234. 

Burns,  Robert,  outline  of  life,  and 
poems  of,  272-278;  Carlyle's 
essay  on,  361. 

Burnet,  Gilbert,  214. 

Burney,  Frances,  301. 

Burton,  Robert,  Anatomy  of  Melan- 
choly by,  177-178. 

Butler,  Samuel,  198. 

Byron,  Lord,  Dying  Gladiator  of, 
1-2  ;  career  and  works,  290-294. 


Csedmon,   17-18 ;    dream  and  hymn 

of,  18. 

Csedmonian  poems,  20-21. 
Caesar,  Julius,  in  Britain,  4. 
Callista,  Newman's,  370. 

2H 


Campaign,  The,  Addison's,  225-226. 

Campbell,  Thomas,  287-289. 

Campion,  Thomas,  161. 

Canterbury  Tales,  Chaucer's,  65,  68- 
71. 

Captain  Singleton,  Defoe's,  221,  247. 

Carberry,  Ethna,  452. 

Carew,  Thomas,  185. 

Carleton,  William,  319. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  outline  of  life,  and 
works,  359-366. 

Casa  Guidi  Windows,  Mrs.  Brown- 
ing's, 326. 

Cashel  Byron's  Pilgrimage,  Shaw's, 
413. 

Castle  of  Indolence,  Thomson's,  239. 

Castle  of  Otranto,  The,  Walpole's,  253. 

Castle  Rackrent,  Maria  Edgeworth's, 
302. 

Cato,  Addison's,  226. 

Cavalier  lyrics,  184. 

Cavaliers,  165. 

Caxton,  William,  94-95. 

Cenci,  The,  Shelley's,  295. 

Chap  books,  83. 

Chapman,  George,  161. 

Chatterton,  Thomas,  269-271 ;  poem 
by  Keats  dedicated  to,  298-299. 

Chaucer,  period  of,  52  ff. ;  study 
of  portrait  of,  63 ;  sketch  of 
life,  63-64  ;  periods  of  growth,  65  ; 
early  experiments,  65-66 ;  dis- 
cussion of  works,  66-71 ;  language 
of,  71. 

Chester,  pageants  at,  109,  110. 

Chesterfield,  Lord,  249. 

Chesterton,  G.  K.,  449-450. 

Chettle,  Henry,  quoted  on  Shake- 
speare, 141. 

Childe  Harold's  Pilgrimage,  Byron's, 
291-292. 

Child's  Garden  of  Verses,  Stevenson's, 
402. 

Chivalry,  institution  of,  37-38 ;  ro- 
mances dealing  with,  40-41. 

Choir-boys  as  actors,  167-168. 

Christ  and  Satan,  Csedmonian  poem, 
21. 

Christabel,  Coleridge's,  285. 

Christmas  books,  Dickens's,   379. 

Chronicles,  Saxon,  26-29. 


466 


INDEX 


Church  drama,  the,  107-108. 
Church  History  of  England,    Bede's, 

26. 
Clarissa       Harlowe,        Richardson's, 

250. 
Classical  period  of  English  literature, 

216  ff. 

Clayhanger,  Bennett's,  449. 
Cleanness,  poem,  56. 
Cloister  and  the  Hearth,  The,  Reade's, 

382. 

Cloud,  The,  Shelley's,  296. 
Clough,  Arthur  Hugh,  406. 
Cobb,  C.,  cited,  82. 
Coffee-houses,  London,  218. 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  282-286. 
Colin  Clout,  Skelton's,  105. 
Collins,  Wilkie,  406. 
Collins,  William,  241-242. 
Comedies  of  manners,  204. 
Complaint     unto     Pity,     Chaucer's, 

65. 

Compleat  Angler,  Walton's,  178. 
Comus,  Milton's,  190. 
Confessio  Amantis,  Gower's,  73. 
Confessions    of   an    English    Opium- 
Eater,  De  Quincey's,  305-306. 
Congreve,  William,  205. 
Conrad,   Joseph,   438-439. 
Consolation  of  Philosophy,  Boethius's, 

29. 

Corelli,  Marie,  452. 
Corsair,  The,  Byron's,  293. 
Country  Mouse  and  the  Town  Mouse, 

Henry  son's,  96. 
Courtney,  W.  L.,  407. 
Court  poetry,  Anglo-Saxon,  13-14. 
Cowley,  Abraham,  199. 
Cowper,  William,  265-267. 
Crabbe,  George,  319. 
Craik,  Dinah  M.,  406. 
Cranford,  Mrs.  Gaskell's,  381. 
Crashaw,  Richard,  187. 
Criticism,  denned,  79. 
Crockett,  S.  R.,  452. 
Crossing  the  Bar,  Tennyson's,  335. 
Crusades,  the,  37. 
Cuckoo  Song,  The,  47. 
Cunningham-Graham,  R.  B.,  407. 
Curse  of  Kehama,  Southey's,  287. 
Cynewulf ,  Anglo-Saxon  poet,  23. 


D 

Daffodil    Fields,     The,     Masefield's, 

433. 

Daily  Bread,  Gibson's,  434. 
Dampier,  William,  214. 
Danby,  Frank  (Mrs.  Julia  Frankau), 

452. 
Dance  of  the  Seven  Deadly  Sins,  The, 

Dunbar's,  99. 
Daniel,  Samuel,  161. 
Daniel,  Csedmonian  poem,  21. 
Daniel     Deronda,     George     Eliot's, 

385. 
Danish    influence    on    Anglo-Saxon 

literature,  30. 
Dante,  64. 
Darwin,    Charles,    324;     Origin    oj 

Species,  348. 

D'Avenant,  Sir  William,  198,  204. 
David  and  Bethsabe,  Peele's,  135. 
David  Copperfield,  Dickens's,  378. 
Davidson,  John,  357-358. 
Davies,  Sir  John,  161. 
Debate,  the,  in  verse,  44-45. 
Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 

Gibbon's,  301. 
De  Coverley  Papers,  Addison's,  226, 

227-228. 
Defoe,  Daniel,  career  and  works,  219- 

221. 

Dekker,  Thomas,  161. 
De  Morgan,  William  F.,  437-438. 
Denham,  Sir  John,  198. 
Deor's  Lament  (Elegy  of  Deor),  12. 
De  Quincey,  Thomas,  305-307. 
Deserted    Village,    The,    Goldsmith's, 

257-258. 

De  Vere,  Aubrey,  406. 
Devil  in  early  English  drama,  113. 
Diana  of  the  Crossways,  Meredith's, 

394. 

Dickens,   Charles,   375-381. 
Dictionaries,  231-232. 
Disraeli,  Benjamin,  381. 
Dissenters,  219. 
Dobell,  Sidney,  406. 
Dobson,  Austin,  407. 
Dodgson,  Charles  L.,  406. 
Domestic  ballads,  77. 
Donne,  John,  183-184. 


INDEX 


467 


Douglas,  Gavin,  99. 

Dowden,  Edward,  407. 

Doyle,  Sir  Arthur  Conan,  452. 

Drama,  early  period,  106  ff. ;  de- 
fined, 106 ;  children's  games,  106- 
107 ;  the  church  service,  107 ; 
the  church  drama,  107-108  ;  trade 
guilds  and  the,  108 ;  pageants, 
108-110;  miracle  plays,  110; 
mystery  play  at  Pomfret,  Conn., 
110;  moralities,  110-111;  inter- 
ludes, 111;  status  of  actors,  112; 
masques,  113-114;  Latin  in- 
fluence in  comedy  and  in  tragedy, 
114-115;  early  comedies  and 
tragedies,  114-116;  the  Shake- 
spearean period,  120  ff. ;  Spanish 
influence  during  Elizabeth's  reign, 
132-133;  first  English  theatre, 
133-134;  printing  of  plays,  134; 
Shakespeare,  138-158 ;  the  three 
unities,  167 ;  boy-actors  and  their 
effect,  167-169;  alliance  of  re- 
ligion and,  169 ;  Ben  Jonson, 
170-175  ;  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 
Ford,  and  Shirley,  176-177;  in 
Restoration  period,  204-209 ; 
Addison's  dramas,  226 ;  Tenny- 
son's dramas,  334 ;  Browning's 
dramas,  337  ;  Swinburne's  dramas, 
355;  recent,  411-427. 

Dramatic  Lyrics,  Browning's,  339. 

Drapier's  Letters,  Swift's,  222. 

Drayton,  Michael,  161. 

Dream  of  Gerontius,  Newman's,  370. 

Dream  of  the  Cross,  Anglo-Saxon 
poem,  21-22. 

"Drink  to  me  only  with  thine  eyes," 
184. 

Drummond,  William  of  Hawthorn- 
den,  198. 

Dryden,  John,  206-207;  plays  by, 
207;  prose  writings,  208-209; 
political  satires,  209-210;  re- 
ligious didactic  poems,  211 ;  lyric 
poems,  212 ;  place  as  a  man  of 
letters,  212. 

Dudeney,  Mrs.  Henry,  453. 

Dunbar,  William,  97-99. 

Dunciad,  The,  Pope's,  237. 

Dying  Gladiator,  Byron's,  1-2. 


E 


Earthly  Paradise,  The,  Morris's, 
352-353. 

Edgeworth,  Maria,  302. 

Edward  II,  Marlowe's,  137. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  period  of, 
35-36! 

Egoist,  The,  Meredith's,  393-394. 

Elegy  of  Deor,  12. 

Elegy  Written  in  a  Country  Church- 
yard, Gray's,  240. 

Elene,  Cynewulf's,  23. 

Eliot,  George  (Mary  Ann  Evans), 
383-386. 

Endymion,  Keats's,  298-299. 

England,  derivation  of  name,  9  n. 

English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers, 
Byron's,  291. 

English  Humourists,  Thackeray's, 373. 

Essay  on  Burns,  Carlyle's,  361. 

Essay  on  Criticism,  Pope's,  235. 

Essay  on  Man,  Pope's,  237. 

Essays,  Bacon's,  131 ;  Steele's,  229  ; 
Macaulay's,  367-368 ;  Stevenson's, 
400-401. 

Essays  in  Criticism,  Arnold's,  347. 

Essays  of  Elia,  Lamb's,  304. 

Etherege,  Sir  George,  214. 

Euphues,  Lyly's,  122. 

Eve  of  St.  Agnes,  The,  Keats's,  300. 

Evelyn,  John,  214. 

Everyman,  morality  play,  111. 

Every  Man  in  His  Humour,  Jonson's, 
171. 

Every  Man  Out  of  His  Humour,  Jon- 
son's,  171. 

Examiner,  The,  Swift's,  218. 

Examiner,  The,  Leigh  Hunt's,  305. 

Excursion,  The,  Wordsworth's,  281. 

Exodus,  Caedmonian  poem,  21. 


Fables,  Henryson's,  96. 

Faerie  Queene,  The,  •  Spenser's,  127- 
130. 

Falstaff,  character  of,  154. 

Farquhar,  George,  205-206. 

Fashionable  Tales,  Maria  Edge- 
worth's,  302. 


468 


INDEX 


Fates  of  the  Apostles,  The,  Cyne- 
wulf's,  23. 

Faustus,  Marlowe's,  137. 

Felix  Holt,  George  Eliot's,  385. 

Ferdinand,  Count  Fathom,  Smollett's, 
255. 

Ferguson,  Robert,  319. 

Feudalism,  of  Norman-English  pe- 
riod, 36;  modifying  effect  of  the 
Crusades  on,  37. 

Fielding,  Henry,  career  and  works, 
250-251 ;  literary  position,  251- 
252  ;  influence  on  Thackeray,  374. 

Finn,  story  of,  12. 

Fiona  Macleod  (William  Sharp) ,  427- 
428. 

Fires,  Gibson's,  435. 

Fitzgerald,  Edward,  327. 

Fletcher,  Alexander,  214. 

Fletcher,  John,  collaborates  with 
Shakespeare,  151. 

Fletcher,  Phineas,  198. 

Flying  man,  Dunbar's  poem  concern- 
ing the,  97. 

Folk-dramas,  106,  107. 

Folk-song,  11. 

Folk-tales,  Anglo-Saxon,  14. 

Ford,  John,  176. 

Fors  Clavigera,  Ruskin's,  389. 

Fortunatus,  Dekker's,  161. 

Four  Georges,  The,  Thackeray's,  373. 

Freeman,  E.  A.,  406. 

French  Revolution,  The,  Carlyle's, 
362-563. 

Friar  Bacon  and  Friar  Bungay, 
Greene's,  136. 

Froissart,  64. 

Froude,  J.  A.,  406. 

Fuller,  Thomas,  179. 

G 

Galsworthy,  John,  415-417. 
Gammer  Gurton's  Needle,  115. 
Gardiner,  S.  R.,  407: 
Gareth  and  Lynette,  Tennyson's,  332. 
Garlands,  literary,  83. 
Gascoigne,  George,  160. 
Gaskell,  Elizabeth,  381. 
Gawayne  and  the  Green  Knight,  56. 
Gay,  John,  244. 


Genesis,  Csedmonian  poem,  21. 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  41-42. 
Gerald  of  Wales,  50. 
German  influence  on  Coleridge,  285. 
German  literature,  Carlyle's  interest 

in,  360. 
Gertrude    of    Wyoming,    Campbell's, 

288. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  301. 
Gibson,  Wilfrid  Wilson,  434-435. 
Gildas,  Anglo-Saxon  historian,  25. 
Gissing,  George,  452. 
Gleemen,  Anglo-Saxon,  12,  14. 
Go,  Lovely  Rose,  Waller's,  198. 
Goldsmith,  Oliver,  256-259. 
Good-natured  Man,  The,  Goldsmith's, 

258. 

Gorboduc  (F  err  ex  and  Porrex),  116. 
Gower,  John,  73. 
Grace  Abounding,  Bunyan's,  181. 
Grant,  James,  406. 
Gray,    Thomas,    240;     as    a    letter- 
writer,  249. 

Green,  John  Richard,  407. 
Greene,  Robert,  135-136 ;    attack  on 

Shakespeare,   141 ;    narratives  by, 

247. 

Gregory,  Lady  Augusta,  421-422. 
Grub  Street,  the  name,  219. 
Gulliver's    Travels,    61 ;    outline    of, 

223-224. 


Haggard,  H.  Rider,  452. 

Hallam,  Henry,  319. 

Hamlet,  Shakespeare's,  153. 

Hankin,  St.  John  E.  C.,  452. 

Hardy,  Thomas,  398. 

Harrison,  Frederic,  407. 

Hatteras  Island  mermaid  songs,  82. 

Hawes,  Stephen,  105. 

Hazlitt,  William,  304. 

Heber,  Reginald,  319. 

Hebrew  Melodies,  Byron's,  293. 

Hebrides,  ballads  of  the,  80-81. 

Hemans,  Felicia  D.,  319. 

Henley,  W.  E.,  406. 

Henry  V,  Shakespeare's,  147. 

Henry  VI,  151. 

Henry  VIII,  151. 


INDEX 


469 


Henry  Esmond,  Thackeray's,  372. 
Henry  the  Minstrel   (Blind  Harry), 

105. 

Henryson,  Robert,  95-96. 
Herbert,  George,  186. 
Herod,  Phillips' s  tragedy,  419. 
Heroes  and  Hero-Worship,  Carlyle's, 

363-364. 

Heroic  plays,  204. 
Heroic  verse  of  Restoration  period, 

204. 

Herrick,  Robert,  poems  by,  185,  252. 
Hewlett,   Maurice  H.,  439-440. 
Heywood,     John,     interlude    writer, 

111-112. 

Heywood,  Thomas,  198. 
Hichens,  Robert  S.,  452. 
Highland  Mary,  Burns  and,  276- 

278. 
Hind  and  the  Panther,  The,  Dryden's, 

211. 

Hinkson,  Katharine  Tynan,  452. 
Historical  ballads,  77. 
Historical  poetry,  Anglo-Saxon,  16. 
History  of  England,  Macaulay's,  368. 
History  of  Henry  VII,  Bacon's,  132. 
History    of    the    Kings    of    Britain, 

Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's,  41. 
Hobbes,  Thomas,  198. 
Hogg,  James,  319. 
Holland,  Richard,  105. 
Holy  Grail  tradition,  42. 
Holy  Living  and  Holy  Dying,  Tay- 
lor's, 179. 
Home,  John,  244. 
Home,  Sweet  Home,  75. 
Homilies,  ^Elfric's,  30. 
Hood,  Thomas,  319. 
Hooker,  Richard,  160. 
Hope,  Anthony,  452. 
Hound  of  Heaven,   Thompson's,    358. 
Hours  of  Idleness,  Byron's,  291. 
House  of  Fame,  Chaucer's,  65,  67-68. 
House  of  Life,  Rossetti's,  350. 
How  Sleep  the  Brave,  Collins' s,  241. 
Howard,  John,  263. 
Huchown,  Pistill  of  Susan  by,  73. 
Hudibras,  Butler's,  198. 
Hughes,  Thomas,  344. 
Humanism,  88. 
Humanitarian  novelists,  381. 


Hume,  David,  244. 

Humphrey  Clinker,  Smollett's,  255. 

Hunt,  J.  H.  Leigh,  305. 

Button,  R.  H.,  407. 

Huxley,  Thomas  Henry,  391-392. 

Hyde,  Edward,  Earl  of  Clarendon, 
History  of  the  Rebellion,  198. 

Hymn  for  Christmas  Day,  Chatter- 
ton's,  271. 

Hymn  of  the  Nativity,  Crashaw's,  187. 

Hyperion,  Keats' s,  299-300. 


Ibsen,  Henrik,  411. 

Idea  of  a  University,  The,  Newman's, 

370. 

Idler,  The,  Johnson's  periodical,  231. 
Idylls  of  the  King,  Tennyson's,  330- 

331. 

Iliad,  Pope's  version,  236. 
II  Penseroso,  Milton's,  189. 
Imaginary    Conversations,    Lander's, 

304. 

Imaginary  Portraits,  Pater's,  397. 
Inchcape  Rock,  Southey's,  287. 
Indo-European  race,  2-3. 
Ingeland,  Thomas,  118. 
Ingelow,  Jean,  406. 
Inland     Voyage,     An,     Stevenson's, 

400-401. 

In  Memoriam,  Tennyson's,  330. 
Interludes,  moral  plays,  111 ;   writers 

of,  111-112;   players  of,  112-113. 
Irish  dramatic  movement,  421-427. 
Irish  Melodies,  Moore's,  289-290. 
Isabella,  Keats' s,  299. 
Italian,  The,  Mrs.  Radcliffe's,  301. 
Italy,  Revival  of  Learning  in,  89-90. 
Ivanhoe,  Scott's,  38;   outline  of,  312- 

313. 


Jacobite  Journal,  Fielding's,  218. 

Jacobs,  W.  W.,  452. 

James  I,  a  royal  poet,  91-92. 

James  I,  encourages  translation  and 

publication  of  Authorized  Version 

of  Bible,  165-166. 
Jameson,  Anna,  319. 
Jane  Eyre,  Charlotte  Bronte's,  382. 


470 


INDEX 


Jew  of  Malta,  Marlowe's,  137. 

John  Gilpin,  Cowper's,  266. 

John  of  Trevisa,  73. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  career,  works,  and 
place  in  literary  history,  230-233. 

Jolly  Beggars,  The,  Burns' s,  274. 

Jonathan  Wild,  Defoe's,  221. 

Jonathan  Wild,  Fielding's,  251. 

Jones,  Henry  Arthur,  411-412. 

Jonson,  Ben,  quoted  on  Shakespeare, 
142  ;  career  and  works,  170-175  ; 
To  Celia  by,  184. 

Joseph  Andrews,  Fielding's,  251. 

Joseph  Vance,  De  Morgan's,  437. 

Journalism,  beginnings  of,  218. 

Journal  to  Stella,  Swift's,  221. 

Journey  to  the  Western  Isles  of  Scot- 
land, Johnson's,  232. 

Joyce,  P.  W.,  407. 

Juliana,  Cynewulf's,  23. 

Julius  Ccesar,  Shakespeare's,  147. 

Jungle  Books,  Kipling's,  446. 

K 

Katherine,  St.,  play  of,  110. 

Keats,  Ode  on  a  Grecian  Urn,  55 ; 
outline  of  career  of,  and  works, 
297-300. 

Kelmscott  Press,  Morris's,  352. 

Kelts,  the,  3 ;  influence  on  Anglo- 
Saxon  literature,  22-23,  29. 

Kenilworth,  Scott's,  313. 

Kim,  Kipling's,  445. 

King  Hart,  Gavin  Douglas's,  100. 

Kingis  Quair,  The,  James  I's,  92. 

King  Lear,  Layamon's  Brut  a  fore- 
runner of,  42-43 ;  discussion  of, 
148,  153. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  382. 

King's  Tragedy,  The,  Rossetti's,  350. 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  444-446. 

Knowles,  James  Sheridan,  319. 

Kubla  Khan,  Coleridge's,  285. 

Kyd,  Thomas,  tragedies  in  blank 
verse  by,  134-135. 


Lady  of  the  Lake,  The,  Scott's,  310- 
311. 


Lake  Poets,  the  so-called,  278. 

Lalla  Rookh,  Moore's,  290. 

L' Allegro,  Milton's,  189. 

Lamb,  Charles,  303-304. 

Lamb,  Mary,  304. 

Lamia,  Keats' s,  300. 

Lancelot  and  Elaine,  Tennyson's,  332— 

333. 
Land  of  Heart's  Desire,  The,  Yeats' s, 

425. 

Landor,  Walter  Savage,  304. 
Lang,  Andrew,  407. 
Langland,  William,  54. 
Language  of  Chaucer's  time,  71. 
Last  Man,  The,  Campbell's,  288-289. 
Latin  influence,  in  English  comedy, 

114-115;  in  tragedy,  115. 
Layamon's  Brut,  42. 
Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  Scott's,  309. 
Lay  Sermons,  Huxley's,  392. 
Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,   Macaulay's, 

368. 

Lead,  Kindly  Light,  Newman's,  370. 
Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  407. 
Lee,  Nathaniel,  214. 
Le  Gallienne,  Richard,  452. 
Legend  of  Good   Women,   Chaucer's, 

65. 
Letter-writing    as   a    form    of    prose 

composition,  248-249. 
Lever,  Charles,  406. 
Liberty  of  Prophesying,  Taylor's,  179. 
Libraries,  early  English,  29. 
Life  of  John  Sterling,  Carlyle's,  364. 
Life  of  Nelson,  Sou  they 's,  287. 
Little  Minister,    The,    Barrie's,    414- 

415. 

Lochiel's  Warning,   Campbell's,   287. 
Locke,    John,    philosophical    writer, 

202. 

Locke,  W.  J.,  novelist,  441. 
Lockhart,  J.  G.,  319. 
Locksley  Hall,  Tennyson's,  329. 
Lodge,  Thomas,  160-161. 
London  Lickpenny,  Lydgate's,  105. 
Longfellow,  rendering  of  Beowulf,  13  ; 

Saga  of  King  Olaf  by,  16. 
Lord   Clive,   Macaulay's  essay,   367. 
Lord  of  the  Isles,  The,  Scott's,  311. 
Lord    Ullin's   Daughter,    Campbell's, 

288. 


INDEX 


471 


Lorna   Doone,   Blackm ore's,    391. 

Loss  of  the  Royal  George,  The,  Cow- 
per's,  266. 

Lovelace,  Richard,  186. 

Lover,  Samuel,  319. 

Love-songs,  Norman-English,  46-47. 

Lucas,  E.  V.,  453. 

Lucy  Gray,  Wordsworth's,  281. 

Lullaby,  an  Anglo-Irish,  48. 

Lycidas,  Milton's,  190-191. 

Lydgate,  John,  105. 

Lyly,  John,  Euphues  by,  122 ; 
plays  by,  134. 

Lyndsay,  Sir  David,  interlude  writer, 
111. 

Lyrics,  the  beginning  of,  45-46 ; 
Norman-English,  46 ;  of  love,  46- 
47  ;  religious  songs,  47-48  ;  Shake- 
speare's, 142  ;  Cavalier,  1 84  ;  secu- 
lar, of  Miltonic  period,  185-186; 
religious,  186-187  ;  Dryden's,  212  ; 
Shelley's,  295-296. 

M 

Mabinogion,  330. 

Macaulay,  Thomas  Babington,  366- 

369. 

Macbeth,  Shakespeare's,  148-150,  153. 
McCarthy,  Justin,  407. 
Mac  Flecknoe,  Dryden's,  210. 
Mackenzie,  Henry,  308,  319. 
Mackenzie,  Sir  George,  203. 
Mackenzie,  William  Cook,  452. 
MacManus,  Seumas,  453. 
Macpherson,  James,  267-269. 
Madlon,  poem  on  battle  of,  16. 
Magic  verses,  11. 
Maine,  Sir  Henry,  406. 
Mainsail  Haul,  The,  Masefield's,  432. 
Malory,  Sir  Thomas,  93-94. 
Man  and  Superman,  Shaw's,  413. 
Mandeville,  Sir  John,  61-62. 
Mangan,  James  Clarence,  406. 
Manning,  Robert,  50. 
Map,  Walter,  50. 

Marius  the  Epicurean,  Pater's,  397. 
Marlowe,  Christopher,  136-138. 
Marmion,  Scott's,  309-310. 
Marryat,  Captain  Frederick,  319. 
Marstoq,  John,  198. 


Martyn,  Edward,  452. 
Marvell,  Andrew,  199. 
Masefield,  John,  431-434. 
Masques,  in  early  drama,   113-114; 

Jonson   as   a   writer   of,   173-174; 

Milton's,   190. 
Massinger,  Philip,  198. 
Maud,  Tennyson's,  334. 
Medley,  The,  early  newspaper,  218. 
Medwall,  Henry,  118. 
Men  and  Women,  Browning's,  340. 
Merchant   of   Venice,    Shakespeare's, 

145-147,  155. 
Meredith,  George,  392-396. 
Metaphor  in  Anglo-Saxon  verse,  15. 
Michel,  Don,  Ayenbite  of  Inwyt  by, 

73. 

Middle  Ages,  the,  87. 
Middlemarch,  George  Eliot's,  385. 
Middleton,  Richard,  452. 
Middleton,  Thomas,  161. 
Midland  dialect  used  by  Chaucer,  71. 
Midsummer   Night's    Dream,    Shake- 
speare's, 145. 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  406. 
Mill     on     the     Floss,     The,     George 

Eliot's,  384-385. 
Milton,     John,     period     of,     163  ff. ; 

life    and    works,     187-195 ;     rank 

in  literary  history,  196. 
Minot,  Laurence,  73. 
Minstrelsy  in  England,  17-20. 
Miracle  plays,  110. 
Modern  Painters,  Ruskin's,  387-388. 
Moll  Flanders,  Defoe's,  221. 
Montagu,  Lady  Mary,  249. 
Moore,  F.  Frankfort,  452. 
Moore,  George,  452. 
Moore,   Thomas,   289-290. 
Morality  plays,   110-111. 
More,  Sir  Thomas,  101. 
Morley,  John,   407. 
Morris,  William,  351-353. 
Morrison,  Arthur,  452. 
Morte    d'Arthur,     Malory's,     93-94, 

247. 

Mourning  Bride,  Congreve's,  205. 
Mulholland,    Rosa    (Lady    Gilbert), 

406,  452. 

Munro,   Neil,  452. 
My  Last  Duchess,  Browning's,  339. 


472 


INDEX 


Mysteries    of    Udolpho,    Mrs.     Rad- 

cliffe's,  301-302. 
Mystery  play  in  America,  110. 
Mystery  plays,  English,  107-108. 

N 

Nairn,  J.  A.,  work  by,  cited,  167. 

Nairne,  Lady,  319. 

Narratives,  early  English,  246-247. 

Nash,  Thomas,  161. 

New  Atlantis,  The,  Bacon's,  132. 

New  Ballads,  Davidson's,  357. 

Newbolt,  Henry  John,  452. 

Newcomes,  The,  Thackeray's,  373. 

New  Learning,  the,  87-88. 

Newman,  John  Henry,  369-371. 

Newspapers,  the  first,  218. 

New  Way  to  Pay  Old  Debts,  Mas- 
singer's,  198. 

Nicholas  Nickleby,  Dickens' s,  377. 

Nicholas  of  Guildford,  The  Owl  and 
the  Nightingale  attributed  to,  45. 

Nicoll,  Sir  W.  R.,  407. 

Noble  Numbers,  Herrick's,  185. 

Nonconformists,  219. 

Normans,  influence  of,  on  England 
and  English  literature,  35-48. 

North,  Sir  Thomas,  160. 

Northanger  Abbey,  Jane  Austen's, 
302. 

Norton,  Thomas,  116. 

Novel,  rise  of  the,  246  ff . ;  definition, 
248. 

Novum  Organum,  Bacon's,  132. 

Noyes,  Alfred,  435-437. 

O 

Occleve,  Thomas,  105. 

Ode  to  the  West  Wind,  Shelley's,  296. 

Odes,  Keats's,  300. 

Odyssey,  Pope's  version,  237. 

Old    Familiar    Faces,    The,    Lamb's, 

304. 
Old    Wives'     Tale,     The,    Bennett's, 

448-449. 

Oliphant,  Carolina,  319. 
Oliver  Twist,  Dickens' s,  377. 
Ollivant,  Alfred,  453. 
Olney  Hymns,  Cowper's,  266. 


Omar  Khayyam,  327. 

On  a  Distant  Prospect  of  Eton  Col- 
lege, Gray's  ode,  240. 

On  a  Grecian  Urn,  Keats's  ode,  300. 

On  the  Intimations  of  Immortality, 
Wordsworth's  ode,  281. 

On  the  Morning  of  Christ's  Nativity, 
Milton's  ode,  188. 

On  the  Receipt  of  my  Mother's  Picture, 
Cowper's,  265. 

Operas,  beginnings  of,  204. 

Orators  and  oratory,  234. 

Ordeal  of  Richard  Feverel,  The,  Mere- 
dith's, 393. 

Orm,  Ormulum,  by,  50. 

Orosius,  Spanish  historian,  29. 

Ossian,  Macpherson's,  267-268. 

Oswald,  King,  Bede's  story  of,  25- 
26. 

Othello,  Shakespeare's,  154. 

Otway,  Thomas,  205. 

Owl  and  the  Nightingale,  The,  debate 
in  verse,  45. 

Oxford  Movement,  the,  369-370. 


Pageants,  early  English,  108-110. 

Police  of  Honour,  The,  Gavin  Doug- 
las's, 99-100. 

Pamela,  Richardson's,  249. 

Paradise  Lost,  analysis  and  criticism 
of,  193-194. 

Paradise  Regained,  195. 

Parallelism  in  Anglo-Saxon  verse,  16. 

Parliament  of  Fowls,  Chaucer's,  65. 

Passing  of  Arthur,  The,  Tennyson's, 
333-334. 

Past  and  Present,  Carlyle's,  364,  388- 
389. 

Pastoral  Care,  Gregory  the  Great's, 
28-29. 

Pastoral  poetry,  95. 

Pater,  Walter  H.,  396-397. 

Patience,  poem,  56. 

Patmore,  Coventry,  406. 

Pearl,  55-57. 

Pecock,  Reginald,  105. 

Peele,  George,  135. 

Pendennis,  Thackeray's,  372. 

Pepys,  Sanuel,  203. 


INDEX 


473 


Percy,  Reliques  of  Ancient  English 
Poetry,  83,  264. 

Peregrine  Pickle,  Smollett's,  254,  255. 

Pericles,  Prince  of  Tyre,  Shake- 
speare's, 39,  151. 

Per  kin  Warbeck,  Ford's,  176. 

Persuasions  to  Love,  Carew's,  185. 

Peter  Pan,  Barrie's,  415. 

Petrarch,  64. 

Philaster,  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's, 
175. 

Phillips,  Stephen,  417-420. 

Phillpotts,  Eden,  440-441. 

Phoenix,  The,  Anglo-Saxon  poem,  24. 

Picaresque  stories,  221,  247. 

Pickwick  Papers,  The,  Dickens' s,  377. 

Pictures,  the  use  of,  62-63. 

Piers  Plowman,  52-54. 

Pilgrim's  Progress,  comparison  of 
Douglas's  Police  of  Honour  and, 
100 ;  as  an  adventure  story,  180 ; 
outline  and  criticism  of,  182-183. 

Pilgrims,  Chaucer's  Canterbury,  69- 
70. 

Pinero,  Sir  A.  W.,  412. 

Pippa  Passes,  Browning's,  337-338. 

Plain  Dealer,  The,  Wycherley's,  214. 

Plain  Tales  from  the  Hills,  Kipling's, 
445. 

Playboy  of  the  Western  World, 
Synge's,  427. 

Pleasures  of  Hope,  Campbell's,  287. 

Poems  by  the  Way,  Morris's,  353. 

Poems  by  Two  Brothers,  327. 

Poetaster,  The,  Jonson's,  173. 

Poetry,  of  Anglo-Saxon  period,  11- 
24;  of  Chaucer  period,  52-59; 
popular  ballads,  75-84  ;  Sir  Philip 
Sidney  and  Edmund  Spenser,  122- 
130;  non-dramatic,  of  Miltonic 
period,  183-196 ;  of  classical  period, 
234-242 ;  of  romantic  period,  264- 
300;  of  Victorian  period,  324- 
356. 

Political  satires,  Dryden's,  209-210. 

Polyolbion,  Dray  ton's,  161. 

Pomfret,  Conn.,  mystery  play  at, 
110. 

Pope,  Alexander,  234-238. 

Port  of  Many  Ships,  The,  Masefield's, 
432. 


Porter,  Jane,  319. 

Prceterita,  Ruskin's,  387. 

Prelude,  The,  Wordsworth's,  281. 

Pre-Raphaelite  Movement,  348-349. 

Pride  and  Prejudice,  Jane  Austen's, 
303. 

Princess,  The,  Tennyson's,  329-330. 

Printing,  invention  of,  90 ;  effect 
upon  literature  of  Victorian  pe- 
riod, 323. 

Prior,  Matthew,  244. 

Prisoner  of  Chilian,  The,  Byron's, 
293-294. 

Procter,  Adelaide  Anne,  406. 

Prose  writings,  Anglo-Saxon,  25-30 ; 
of  Chaucer  period,  59-62 ;  of 
Miltonic  period,  177-183;  of 
Restoration  period,  202-203;  of 
classical  period,  219-234 ;  rise  of 
the  novel,  246-259 ;  of  romantic 
period,  301-316;  of  Victorian 
period,  359-403;  recent,  437-450. 

Pryce,  Richard,  441-442. 

Puritans  of  Miltonic  period,  164-165. 

Q 

Queen  Mob,  Shelley's,  295. 
Queen  Mary,  Tennyson's  drama,  334. 
Queens,  Jonson's  masque,  174. 
Quentin  Durward,  Scott's,  313. 
Quiller-Couch,  Sir  Arthur,  452. 


Radcliffe,  Ann,  301. 
Raikes,  Robert,  263. 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  History  of  the 

World,  160. 

Ralph  Roister  Doister,  Udall's,  115. 
Rambler,  The,  231. 
Ramsay,  Allan,  244. 
Rape  of  the  Lock,  The,  Pope's,  236. 
Rasselas,  Johnson's,  231. 
Rastell,  John,  118. 
Reade,  Charles,  381-382. 
Realism   and  idealism  in  literature, 

156. 
Reflections  on  the  Revolution  in  France, 

Burke's,  234. 
Religio  Laici,  Dryden's,  211. 


474 


INDEX 


Religio  Medici,  Browne's,  178. 

Religious  poetry  of  Anglo-Saxons,  17, 
47-48. 

Reliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry, 
Percy's,  83,  264. 

Renaissance,  the,  90. 

Restoration  period,  the,  200-215. 

Revival  of  Learning,  the,  87-88. 

Revolt  of  Islam,  Shelley's,  295. 

Richardson,  Samuel,  248-250. 

Rime  in  English  poetry,  48. 

Ring  and  the  Book,  The,  Browning's, 
341-342. 

Rivals,  The,  Sheridan's,  301. 

Robene  and  Makyne,  Henry  son's,  96. 

Robert  of  Gloucester,  50. 

Robertson,  William,  244. 

Robin  Hood  ballads,  76. 

Robinson  Crusoe,  Defoe's,  62,  220. 

Roderick  Random,  Smollett's,  254. 

Roguery,  romances  of,  221,  247. 

Romance,  defined,  247-248. 

Romance  of  the  Rose,  The,  55,  66. 

Romances  of  chivalry,  40-41. 

Romans  in  Britain,  4-6. 

Romantic  ballads,  77. 

Romantic  period  of  English  litera- 
ture, 262  ff. 

Romaunt  of  the  Rose,  Chaucer's,  65. 

Romola,  George  Eliot's,  385. 

Rose  and  the  Ring,  The,  Thackeray's, 
373. 

Rossetti,  Christina,  350-351. 

Rossetti,  Dante  G.,  348-350. 

Round  Table,  King  Arthur's,  42. 

Rubdiydt  of  Omar  Khayyam,  Fitz- 
gerald's, 327. 

Ruin  of  Britannia,  The,  Gildas's,  25. 

Rule  Britannia,  239. 

Runes,  21. 

Runic  cross  at  Ruthwell,  Scotland, 
21. 

Ruskin,  John,  386-390. 

Russell,  George  W.,  430. 


S 


Sackville,  Thomas,  116. 
Sad  Shepherd,  Jonson's,  173. 
Saintsbury,  G.  E.  B.,  407. 
Samson  Agonistes,  Milton's,  195, 


Sartor  Resartus,  Carlyle's,  361-362. 

Satire  of  the  Three  Estates,  Lyndsay's, 
112. 

Satires,  Dryden's  political  and  liter- 
ary, 209-211. 

Saxon  Chronicles,  26-29. 

Scandinavia,  influence  of,  on  Anglo- 
Saxon  literature,  30. 

Scenes  of  Clerical  Life,  George  Eliot's, 
383-384. 

School  for  Scandal,  The,  Sheridan's, 
301.  | 

Schoolmaster,  Ascham's,  122. 

Schools,  of  seventh  century,  17  ; 
Norman-English,  44. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  pen-portrait  of 
Gavin  Douglas  by,  99  ;  career  and 
works,  307-316. 

Scottish  Chiefs,  Jane  Porter's,  319. 

Seasons,  The,  Thomson's,  238-239. 

Selden,  John,  198. 

Sempill,  Robert,  198. 

Sense  and  Sensibility,  Jane  Austen's, 
303. 

Sentimental  Journey,  Sterne's,  252. 

Sesame  and  Lilies,  Ruskin's,  389. 

Shakespeare,  William,  outline  of 
career,  138-141 ;  as  a  man,  141 ; 
as  a  lyric  poet,  142  ;  as  a  dramatist, 
142-143 ;  order  of  the  plays,  143- 
144 ;  plays  of  first  period,  144- 
145 ;  plays  of  second  period,  145- 
148 ;  plays  of  third  period,  148- 
150 ;  plays  of  fourth  period,  150- 
151 ;  collaborated  plays,  151 ; 
approximate  dates  of  plays,  152 ; 
the  best  plays,  153-155 ;  sources 
of  plays,  155-156 ;  why  his  work 
stands  the  test  of  time,  157-158 ; 
place  in  literature,  158. 

Sharp,  William,  427-428. 

Shaw,  George  Bernard,  412-414. 

Shelley,  Mary,  319. 

Shelley,  P.  B.,  294-297. 

Shepherd's  Calendar,  The,  Spenser's, 
126-127. 

Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley,  301. 

She  Stoops  to  Conquer,  Goldsmith's, 
258. 

Shirley,  James,  176-177. 

Shorter,  Dora  S.,  452. 


INDEX 


475 


Shorthouse,  J.  H.,  406. 

Short  story,  the,  443-444. 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  outline  of  career, 
122-123  ;  the  Arcadia  of,  123-124  ; 
the  Apologie  for  Poetrie,  124. 

Sigurd  the  Volsung,  Morris's,  353. 

Silas  Mamer,  George  Eliot's,  385. 

Sir  Charles  Grandison,  Richardson's, 
250. 

Sir  Launcelot  Greaves,  Smollett's,  255. 

Sir  Patrick  Spens,  ballad,  77-79; 
estimate  of,  80. 

Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  Papers,  226, 
227-228. 

Sister  Songs,  Thompson's,  358. 

Skelton,  John,  105. 

Smith,  Adam,  244. 

Smollett,  Tobias,  253-255. 

Sohrab  and  Rustum,  Arnold's,  346- 
347. 

Soliloquies,  St.  Augustine's,  29. 

Soliloquies  in  Song,  Austin's,  354. 

Solitary  Reaper,  The,  Wordsworth's, 
81,  280-281. 

Song  for  St.  Cecilia's  Day,  Dryden's, 
212. 

Songs  of  Experience,  Blake's,  271,  272. 

Songs  of  Innocence,  Blake's,  271. 

Sonnets,  earliest  English,  102 ;  Mil- 
ton'* 192. 

Sonnets  from  the  Portuguese,  Mrs. 
Browning's,  326. 

Sordello,  Browning's,  337. 

Southey,  Robert,  286-287. 

Spanish  Gypsy,  George  Eliot's,  385. 

Spanish  influence  during  Elizabeth's 
reign,  132-133. 

Spanish  Tragedy,  The,  Kyd's,  135. 

Spectator,   The,  Addison's,  225. 

Speech  on  Conciliation  with  America, 
Burke's,  234. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  324. 

Spenser,  Edmund,  career  of,  125-126  ; 
The  Shepherd's  Calendar,  126-127  ; 
The  Faerie  Queene,  127-130 ;  pecu- 
liarities of  metre  and  rime,  129. 

Steele,  Sir  Richard,  228-230. 

Stephen,  Leslie,  407. 

Sterne,  Laurence,  252. 

Stevenson,  R.  L.,  398-403. 

Stevenson,  William,  115. 


Stonehenge,  ruins  of,  3. 

Stubbs,  John,  163. 

Stubbs,  William,  406. 

Sublime  and  Beautiful,  Burke's  essay 

on  the,  233. 

Suckling,  Sir  John,  186. 
Supernatural  ballads,  77. 
Surrey,  Earl  of  (Henry  Howard),  102. 
Swift,    Jonathan,    career   and  works, 

221-224  ;   place  in  literary  history, 

224. 
Swinburne,   Algernon   Charles,   354- 

356. 

Sybil,  Disraeli's,  381. 
Symonds,  J.  A.,  407. 
Symons,  Arthur,  453. 
Synge,  John  Millington,  426-427. 


Table  Talk,  Hazlitt's,  304. 

Tale  of  a  Tub,  A,  Jonson's,  173. 

Tale  of  a  Tub,  The,  Swift's,  223. 

Tales  from  Shakespeare,  Lamb's, 
303-304. 

Tales  of  the  Mermaid  Tavern,  Noyes's, 
436-437. 

Talisman,   The,  Scott's,   313. 

Tamburlaine,  Marlowe's,  137. 

Taming  of  the  Shrew,  The,  Shake- 
speare's, 151. 

Tarn  o'  Shanter,  Burns's,  274. 

Tannahill,  Robert,  319. 

Task,    The,    Cowper's,    266-267. 

Taller,  The,  226;  proportion  of 
papers  written  by  Steele  and  by 
Addison,  229. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  179-180. 

Tempest,  Shakespeare's,  150-151. 

Temple  of  Fame,  Pope's,  67. 

Tennyson,  Battle  of  Brunanburh  by, 
16-17;  indebted  to  Malory,  94; 
life  and  works,  327-335;  place  in 
literature,  335-336. 

Tenure  of  Kings,  pamphlet  by  Mil- 
ton, 191. 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,  371-374. 

Thalaba,  Southey's,  287. 

Theatre,  first  English,  133-134. 

Thomas  of  Erceldoune,  50. 

Thompson,  Francis,  358. 


476 


INDEX 


Thompson,   William   (Lord  Kelvin), 

406. 

Thomson,    James,    238-239. 
Timber,  Ben  Jonson's,  174-175. 
Timon     of    Athens,     Shakespeare's, 

151. 
Titus      Andronicus,      Shakespeare's, 

151. 

To  a  Skylark,  Shelley's  ode,  296. 
To  Celia,  Jonson's,   184. 
To  Lucasta,  Going  Beyond  the  Seas, 

Lovelace's,  186. 
Tom  Brown's  Schooldays,   Hughes's, 

344. 

Tom  Jones,  Fielding's,  251. 
To    the    Nightingale,     Keats's    ode, 

300. 

Tottel's  Miscellany,  102, — 
Trade  guilds  and  the  drama,  108. 
Transition     period     in     civilization 

and    literature,    87-102. 
Traveller,  The,  Goldsmith's,  257. 
Travels  with  a  Donkey,  Stevenson's, 

401. 

Treasure  Island,  Stevenson's,  401. 
Trench,  Herbert,  452. 
Trevelyan,  Sir  George  Otto,  366. 
Tristram  Shandy,  Sterne's,  252. 
Troilus  and  Cressida,  Chaucer's,  65. 
Trollope,  Anthony,  406. 
True  Patriot,  The,  early  journal,  218. 
Turner,  J.   M.  W.,   Ruskin's  cham- 
pionship of,   387. 
Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  The,  151. 
Tyndale,  William,  105. 
Tyndall,  John,  391. 
Tyre,  seaport  of,  38-39. 

U 

Udall,  Nicholas,  Ralph  Roister  Doister 

by,  115. 

Ulysses,    Phillips's,    419. 
Unfortunate    Traveller,    The,    Nash's, 

161. 
Unities,     the     three,     in     dramatic 

writing,    167. 

Unto  this  Last,  Ruskin's,  389. 
Urn  Burial,  Browne's,  179. 
Urquhart,  Sir  Thomas,  198. 
Utopia,  Sir  Thomas  More's,  101. 


Vanity  Fair,  Thackeray's,  372. 
Varied  Types,  Chesterton's,  450. 
Vaughan,  Henry,   187. 
Venice  Preserved,  Otway's,  205. 
Vicar  of  Wakefield,  The,  Goldsmith's, 

258. 
Vices,   the   Devil   and  the,   in   early 

English  drama,  113. 
Victorian  period  of  English  literature, 

322  ff. 

Vikings,  influence  of,  in  England,  30. 
Villon,    French   poet,   95. 
Virginians,  The,  Thackeray's,  373. 
Virginian    Voyage,    The,    Drayton's, 

161. 
Virginibus     Puerisque,     Stevenson's, 

401. 

Vision  of  Mirza,  Addison's,  226. 
Volpone,  or  the  Fox,  Jonson's,  173. 
Voyage     and     Travel,     Mandeville's, 

61. 
Vulgar  Errors,  Browne's,   178. 

W 

Wace,  Robert,  42. 

Wager,  L.,   118. 

W  alder  e,  11. 

Wallace,  Alfred  Russel,  324. 

Waller,    Edmund,    198. 

Walpole,  Horace,  253. 

Walton,  Izaak,  178. 

Ward,  Mrs.  Humphry,  406. 

Warren  Hastings,  Macaulay's  essay, 

367. 

Warton,  Thomas,  244. 
Watson,  William,  428-430. 
Watts,  Isaac,  244. 
Waverley     Novels,     the,     311-313; 

classification  of,  314-315. 
Webster,  John,  198. 
Wells,  H.  G.,  447-448. 
Wesley,  Charles,  244. 
Whig     Examiner,      The,     Addison's 

newspaper,  218. 
Widsith,  poem  of,  12. 
Wilde,  Oscar,  407. 
Wilson,  John  ("Christopher  North"), 

319. 


INDEX 


477 


Woman  in  the  Moon,  Lyly's,  134. 
Woman  Killed  with  Kindness,   Hey- 

wood's,  198. 
Woods,  Nathaniel,  118. 
Wordsworth,    William,    career    and 

works,  278-282. 

Worthies  of  England,  Fuller's,  179. 
Wulfstan,  Anglo-Saxon  prose  writer, 

30. 
Wuthering  Heights,   Emily   Bronte's, 

382. 

Wyatt,  Sir  Thomas,  101-102. 
Wycherley,  William,  214. 


Wyclif,  John,  59-61. 


Yeats,  William  Butler,  422-426. 

Ye  Mariners  of  England,  Campbell's, 

287. 

Young,  Edward,  244. 
Young  Beichan,  romantic  ballad,  77. 


Zangwill,  Israel,  442-443. 


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